With the EU set for a new five-year term, the bloc’s powerhouses France and Germany are insisting that their economic priorities are taken into account most of all. 

In the face of a deeply divided left, the French National Rally's grab for power is easier than many might expect. How is the party reshaping the influence of the far-right at the European level?

Positioning himself as Luxembourg’s future commissioner pick, Nicolas Schmit, the Party of European Socialists (PES) lead candidate for the Commission presidency, told Euractiv that governments led by the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) should nominate Socialists to rebalance powers.