Lamassoure warns Bayrou against leaving the EPP

In an interview with EurActiv, the French centre-right (UMP) MEP Alain Lamassoure warned centrist leader François Bayrou against his intention to leave the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament to join forces with the liberals.

Lamassoure called Bayrou's move "the temptation of Asterix, which means playing gaul tribal games instead of defending our common ideas and French interests in the European Parliament".

He then warned the centrist leader that such a move would leave him isolated. "If for the pleasure of distinguishing himself on the national scene, Francois Bayrou and the UDF party leave the PPE [...] to go with others, then they will completely marginalise themselves".

He went on criticising the British Liberal Democrats with whom the UDF is tipped to form a centrist alliance in the upcoming parliament. "These people are admittedly European federalists, very well, but they support unlimited competition on public services and are hence hostile to public services 'à la française'. They are for homosexual mariage [...] and they are militants for Turkish membership of the EU. So, if the UDF wants to leave [the party] to team up with these people, they are free to do it, but it seems to me that they would be betraying their fundamental political values and that they would be marginalised in the future parliament".

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to read the full interview (in French)