French presidential hopeful Attal vows to build ‘United States of Europe’ – POLITICO

PARIS — French presidential candidate Gabriel Attal laid out an ambitious pro-European platform for his campaign Thursday, vowing to make France part of a powerful, economically muscular “United States of Europe” if he wins next year’s race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron.

“The great mission of my generation is to realize the European dream and to give birth to the United States of Europe,” he said, borrowing language from Victor Hugo. “I don’t want my generation to witness Europe becoming the 51st U.S. state or the 24th Chinese province.”

Speaking to lawmakers, former ministers and employees at an aerospace startup in the heart of Champagne country, Attal laid out a series of proposals that appeared to be drawn straight from the playbooks of Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, the Italian statesmen who authored two landmark reports on the bloc's economic agenda.