Skip to main content
Macron’s bid to rescue the EU
The French president and the European Central Bank have identified ‘more of the same’ neoliberal agenda as the answer to the EU’s woes – but can post-Brexit Britain grasp the opportunity to reject continued austerity, asks NICK WRIGHT
France's President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he delivers a speech at the 19th Francophonie summit in Villers-Cotterets, France, October 4, 2024

LAST week French President Emmanuel Macron chose the Berlin Global Dialogue meeting to argue for an even more deregulated European Union.

France and Germany were traditionally united in insisting on a level playing field and competition rules to prevent the weaker and less industrialised economies of the EU from “unfairly” competing on pay, conditions and labour standards.

Donate to the Fighting Fund
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photo: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Immigration / 24 April 2025
24 April 2025

The left must avoid shouting ‘racist’ and explain that the socialist alternative would benefit all 

ANGER GROWS: Protesters demonstrate in Dover against migrant
Features / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
The left must confront both far-right bigotry and the undeniable problems the exploitation of migrant workers by the ruling class creates — but there are few lessons from the global left on how to strike this balance, laments NICK WRIGHT
FACING THE RIGHT:
Anti-racist protesters
in Walthamstow, 202
Features / 27 March 2025
27 March 2025
Xenophobic hysteria over the statistically insignificant number of small-boat crossings deliberately conceals how capitalism manipulates population flows for profit — if we can explain that, we’ll beat the right, argues NICK WRIGHT
PREMONITION OF DISASTER: Anonymous photographer, Fallen Stat
Book Review / 18 March 2025
18 March 2025
NICK WRIGHT delicately unpicks the eloquent writings on art of an intellectual pessimist who wears his Marxism lightly
Similar stories
United States Vice-President JD Vance, right, shakes hands w
Features / 12 February 2025
12 February 2025
The EU and Nato are umbilically tied – but what will the new Trump era and a reconfiguration of US interests mean for the war in Ukraine, asks VINCE MILLS
Chinese-made BYD passenger battery electric vehicles and plu
Features / 12 November 2024
12 November 2024
New tariffs on Chinese electric cars protect European capitalists at European consumers’ and workers’ expense, writes BHABANI SHANKAR NAYAK, showing a continuation of neocolonial trade practices
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage smoking outside the Westminste
Features / 12 September 2024
12 September 2024
As angry voters reject austerity, social insecurity and endless war across Europe, the left should be the beneficiary instead of the far right. NICK WRIGHT looks at the ideological hangups holding us back from connecting to these dissenters