Does Macron advocate pushing ahead with Turkey's membership of the EU?

On Tuesday, April the 25th, the Facebook page On aime la France claimed that Emmanuel Macron was pushing ahead with Turkey’s membership application to the European Union. In reality, the French Presidential candidate has never supported such a measure.

“Avec Macron, voilà un nouveau pays dans l’Europe! Je dis non!” – “With Macron, here is a new country within Europe! I say no!”; claims the page “On aime la France” (“We love France”), showing a map of Turkey. Nevertheless, pushing forward with Turkey’s membership to the EU is not a step the En Marche! candidate is planning to take.

Translation of the Tweet reads: “Membership of Turkey to the European Union … it’s not going to take long … the bankers are going to make sure of it.” Translation of the text on the image reads: “With Macron, here’s a new country in Europe!! I say NO!!!

In an interview conducted on April the 17th 2017 with the news channel BFMTV, Macron declared that there will be “no progression” regarding the discussions on Turkey’s membership of the European Union if he is elected.

“With a government taking those decisions, there will be no progression concerning [Turkey’s] integration within the European Union” in the coming years, asserted the candidate. The comments came the day after a referendum in Turkey gave more powers to the President. Macron stated that he “regretted profoundly” and “disagreed” with the path taken by the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In the same interview, Emmanuel Macron claimed that “there are thousands, and even millions of voices challenging the referendum result which was very tight”. For this reason: “everything needs to be done in order to help, support those who are fighting for democracy”. “My wish, is to be able to continue having a European Union and a France which leaves the door open for Turkey’s democrats”, he continued.