Centrist MEP Valérie Hayer has been appointed to move President Emmanuel Macron’s listing for the European elections in June. RFI appears into the background of this little-known candidate, who has a battle on her fingers because the French far proper prepares for battle on the hustings.
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Now 37, Hayer was an area councillor for the centrist UDI occasion earlier than switching to Macron’s camp in 2017.
She entered the European Parliament in 2019, and was appointed to guide the parliament’s liberal Renew Europe group in January 2024.
However she has no nationwide profile in France, prompting some observers to query Macron’s resolution to place her first in line to be elected within the upcoming European polls – that are anticipated to be a key check of voters’ religion within the EU.
Chatting with the right-wing Le Figaro each day, Hayer dismissed such considerations: “Possibly I am nonetheless unknown to most of the people, however that is not the case within the halls of the European Parliament. A few of my opponents could not say the identical.”
Honorée de la confiance d’@EmmanuelMacron et de sa majorité présidentielle pour mener à bien cette campagne des Européennes.
Comptez sur ma détermination et mon énergie pour nous mener à la victoire.
Oui, le 9 juin prochain, nous avons besoin d’Europe ! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/sFfnzWLv0c
— Valérie Hayer (@ValerieHayer) February 29, 2024
‘The farmer’s daughter’
Born in France’s north-western Mayenne division in 1986, Hayer – who likes to explain herself as “the daughter, granddaughter and sister of farmers” – is a well timed choose within the mild of French farmers’ anger in the direction of Macron’s authorities and their deep distrust of EU agricultural coverage.
“I am fortunate sufficient to have grown up on a farm with my sister and brother,” Hayer informed TF1 tv this week, saying she was “very proud to come back from the farming world”.
Hayer initially needed to turn out to be a veterinary surgeon, however went on to review public regulation.
She was shortly drawn to the world of politics, turning into an area councillor in her dwelling area on the age of 21 – the identical 12 months she joined the UDI.
From native politics, Hayer went on to turn out to be vice-president of the Mayenne division in 2016, becoming a member of Macron’s occasion – then named En Marche, since renamed Renaissance – in 2017.
European monitor document
Two years later she was elected to the European Parliament and has since performed an lively function in negotiating the rolling European price range and the post-Covid restoration plan.
In a foretaste of the following three months of campaigning, Hayer has often crossed swords with the far-right Nationwide Rally led by Jordan Bardella, in addition to Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s hard-left France Unbowed group.
Talking on her first marketing campaign go to on Friday, to a farm in her native Mayenne, Hayer harassed that she didn’t need “Europe and agriculture to be opposed”.
“I do not need Europe and agriculture to be pitted in opposition to one another. The truth is that … French farmers want Europe,” she stated.
“Yearly, €10 billion of European cash goes to help French farmers. I fought to get it on the very starting of my time period of workplace. I can assure you that it wasn’t a foregone conclusion.”
Hayer’s farming credentials shall be put to the check on Saturday when she attends the politically charged Paris Agriculture Present, the place indignant farmers final weekend greeted Macron with whistles and insults.
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