There was a moment of relief for policymakers across the EU and Nato when President Emmanuel Macron won the most votes in the first round of the French election against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
But while Macron’s lead ahead of the April 24 run-off has eased acute concerns among officials in Brussels and across Europe, the potential remains for France to elect a president who wants to pull the country out of Nato’s military structures, tear up reams of EU legislation and restore relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“I am very worried about it, I hope that we won’t get Le Pen as president of France,” Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn said this week, in a rare public rebuke of her candidacy by a foreign official — but a refrain heard regularly behind closed doors. “The French need to prevent this,” he said, adding that her victory “would not only mean a break away from the core values of the EU, it would totally change its course”.