Vote in France: for the extreme right or for Europe

Europe is facing a change of era.

Trying to rewrite history, Putin has launched a brutal attack on Ukraine and its people.

Images of Mariupol, Bucha or Kramatorsk evoke memories of Europe's darkest times.

But Putin's aggression goes further.

He has broken the most fundamental rule of our European peace order: not to move the borders by force, as we have done so many times throughout our bloody past.

Putin's war is directed against the values ​​that France and our countries defend: democracy, sovereignty, freedom and the rule of law.

However, populists and the extreme right in all our countries have been claiming Putin as an ideological and political model, replicating his chauvinist ideas.

They have echoed his attacks on minorities and diversity and his goal of nationalist uniformity.

We must not forget that, no matter how much those politicians are now trying to distance themselves from the Russian aggressor.

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Video: the full debate between Macron and Le Pen in Spanish

That is why the second round of the French presidential elections cannot be an ordinary election for us.

The choice facing the French people is a critical one, for France and for each and every one of us in Europe.

It is the choice between a Democratic candidate, who believes that France's strength extends into a powerful and autonomous European Union, and a candidate from the extreme right, who openly sides with those who attack our freedom and our democracy, values ​​based on French ideas of the Enlightenment.

France has been a central country in the European project.

Key in European reconciliation, after two disastrous world wars in the last century.

And in the crises of recent years, French leadership was necessary to promote greater European solidarity, knowing that a strong and united Europe does not limit national sovereignty, and is the only way to guarantee that our countries can prosper and compete with powers authoritarian, like Russia.

With France, we are committed to greater European solidarity, when the covid pandemic hit our continent.

As a result, the European Union launched the largest recovery fund in its history, to maintain our social welfare systems.

Today, the unemployment rate in the Eurozone is the lowest ever recorded, despite the pandemic.

Instead of repeating the mistakes of the past and cutting spending in the midst of a crisis, we are investing billions in new technology, social justice, a stronger European defense and a more sustainable, carbon-neutral future for all of us.

Some claim that all of this can be best achieved alone.

“Take back control” was the promise of Brexiteers.

Instead, they have led to disruptions in transportation and supply chains, a drop in foreign trade, and generally higher inflation rates than the Eurozone.

Those who were supposed to end up better off – the workers, the youth and the most vulnerable – ended up suffering the most from its consequences.

The truth is that only united do we have the power to maintain our prosperity and well-being.

Only united can we shape globalization in a humane way.

And only united will we defend international peace and order, which are being attacked.

That is why we need France by our side.

A France that has been, time and time again, a beacon of democracy and brotherhood for Europe and the world.

The nation that welcomed the exiles fleeing the dictatorships of Franco and Salazar.

A France that defends justice, against anti-democratic leaders, such as Putin.

A France that defends our common values, in the Europe in which we recognize ourselves, free and open to the world, sovereign and European, strong and compassionate at the same time.

Which France will come out of the polls on April 24?

Citizens of the French Republic have the choice.

António Costa

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are the social democratic leaders of Portugal, Spain and Germany.

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