POLITICO: Verhofstadt plans pan-European liberal alliance with Macron

10 September 2018

European Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt said Sunday his group is ready to campaign together with French President Emmanuel Macron in next year’s European election and create a movement that will be a “pro-European alternative to nationalists.”

Verhofstadt’s liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament and Macron’s La République En Marche party would “keep their symbols,” he said. But “our objective is to create a decisive group in the future Parliament, and a tool to stop the nationalistic wave,” Verhofstadt told French daily newspaper Ouest-France.

But Christophe Castaner, the chief executive of La République En Marche, distanced Macron’s party from Verhofstadt’s comments. “We are not ready for an alliance,” he told Reuters on Sunday.

Verhofstadt said the new movement, which would be launched in October, doesn’t have a name yet, but  “Generation Europe” could be one option. “It will be something new, a movement,” the former Belgian prime minister added. “A pro-European alternative to nationalists. Our group is ready to participate in it starting from now, without delay.” [...]

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