HELSINKI: Although far-right leader Marine Le Pen did not win the presidential elections in France, “the extreme right forces still exist,” the head of the EU’s executive Commission said Friday.
Jean-Claude Juncker told a press conference: “Do not believe all this is over. Le Pen got 11 million votes.”
Juncker spoke in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, a day before the Baltic nation takes over the EU’s six-month, rotating presidency.
It is Estonia’s first experience in the office since joining the EU in 2004.
Juncker says he fully embraced the upcoming presidency’s priority of enhancing digitalization, but admitted he was not a technology fan and does not own a smart phone. Estonia is one of Europe’s most technologically-advanced nations.
Juri Ratas, the prime minister of the Baltic country of 1.3 million, said Estonia wishes to see the free movement of data becoming a new basic freedom within the EU along with the free movement of goods, capital, services and labor.
Estonia inherits a myriad of complex issues from its Maltese predecessors including Britain’s Brexit talks and major differences over EU’s refugee quota policy in which Ratas said “solidarity” was needed to understand views of some member states.
Its presidency runs through Dec. 31. The Baltic nation joined the EU 13 years after it declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
Junker warns after French election: far-right still exists
Junker warns after French election: far-right still exists
