EU elections: Renew Europe’s Valérie Hayer to become Macron camp’s top candidate

Newly-elected Renew Europe Group President Valérie Hayer will be the French liberal lead candidate for upcoming EU elections, Euractiv has learnt, confirming media reports over the weekend.

Hayer, a pro-Macron Renaissance MEP, was a relatively unknown public figure at the EU level, until rising to prominence after being elected as Renew Europe’s President in late January. She took over from Stéphane Séjourné after his surprise appointment as France’s Foreign minister earlier this year.

Media reports claimed over the weekend Hayer was hand-picked by President Emmanuel Macron to lead the liberal charge – which includes the Renaissance party and centrist allies, gathered together under the Ensemble coalition.

This information was confirmed to Euractiv by a party source with knowledge of the talks on Sunday (25 February).

Renaissance had not made the information public by the time this article was published. According to the French weekly Le Point, a meeting will occur in l’Elysée on Sunday to enshrine the president’s decision.

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Tackling the farmers’ crisis

The nomination comes amid a growing farmers’ crisis in France – and Hayer, who comes from a family of farmers with close ties to the farming community in the Western part of the country, is seen to be the right pick to tackle the issue head-on.

Macron was heckled and booed at the landmark annual agricultural show in Paris on Saturday (24 February) as farmers complain of unfair international competition, excessive administrative burdens and increasing production costs.

Agriculture is set to become one of the EU elections’ key conversation topics.

“We must ensure farmers have higher revenues and support them through the green transition,” she told Euractiv on the day of her election as Renew president, vouching to fight for farmers’ interests in the European Parliament, though “we must not oppose agriculture and environmental issues”.

The liberal camp has been polling at a 19% average since December, far behind far-right Rassemblement National’s (RN) 30% lead.

The Renew Europe group could drop from 101 to 84 seats in the European Parliament, according to data compiled for Euractiv by Europe Elects, a poll aggregator.

“We need someone who can stand up to both [far-left MEP] Manon Aubry and [RN colleague] Jordan Bardella,” a party source told Euractiv last week. Both are seen as presentable, comfortable on the campaign trail and adept at political debates.

Hayer, 37, told Euractiv in January she did not trust polls and claimed she was confident there would be a pro-EU majority in the Parliament after the June elections.

“[Renew] is the most clearly identified political family that fights against extremes,” she slammed.

Hayer’s name had been floating around for weeks – amid concerns the pro-Macron camp was struggling to find the right fit to lead the EU elections charge.

The name of a new candidate was due to be revealed in January, but that was postponed several times, and political heavyweights had all turned down the job. This had raised questions about whether the Ensemble coalition was ready to get the campaign going.

Aurélie Pugnet contributed to reporting.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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