"I will give a sense of what the country has achieved and where we are going, especially in the years to come," the French head of state said at a press conference at the end of the European Council last Thursday, previewing a speech he will deliver at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Although no further details have been provided so far, Emmanuel Macron is expected to take stock of the crises that the European bloc has faced in the last five years and set out future orientations for Europe, in a speech similar to the one he delivered seven years ago in the same place. "Emmanuel Macron is, for sure, a real European president," French political scientist Virginie Martin told Lusa today, adding that the French President wants a federal Europe. Although the main goal of this speech is to set a course for Europe after the European elections of 06 to 09 June, it will mark Emmanuel Macron's entry into the election campaign, which according to the political scientist "will be very bad for Macron" because this type of midterm elections does not favor those in power after a re-election. The speech, dubbed Sorbonne II by the French media, comes at a time when the President's party (Renaissance, led by Valérie Hayer) is lagging behind in the polls, gathering only 17% of the French voting intentions. In the lead, with 30%, is the far-right National Union (RN, acronym in French) party led by Jordan Bardella, and with the main candidate of the socialists, Raphaël Glucksmann, who gathers a European left-wing platform, on an upward trajectory, with 13% of the voting intentions and increasingly capturing votes from Macron's former electorate. "I think that there is a lot of fear and anxiety in the moment we are living and that this anger always benefits the most simplistic answers," said Macron referring to the RN, adding that "there is a kind of hypocrisy in the debate today". With the entry into the electoral campaign, Macron "can come and give some dynamism and confidence, which is good for the confidence of his candidate, Valérie Hayer", said Virginie Martin, who believes that for the leader of the Renaissance party "it is very complicated to be the loudest voice" and, for this reason, "Macron needs to enter the campaign". Last week, the French President appeared alongside Valérie Hayer in their first joint public appearance since the start of the campaign, showing his support for the candidate. "It is a good time for the President to enter the campaign," defended Virginie Martin, stressing, however, that "it is a bit strange" the choice of the day of the speech as it coincides with the last plenary session of the European Parliament before the European elections. MEPs have also criticized the choice of date because they are in Strasbourg to vote on several measures before the June elections. "It is unfortunate that no one remembered to draw his attention [the French President] to this fact, otherwise he would certainly have chosen a better date," wrote Marie Toussaint, a Green MEP, on the social network X. On 26 September 2017, four months after the beginning of his first term, Macron presented a series of proposals to relaunch the European project, including the creation of a common defense and establishing an "agenda of sovereignty", arguing in his speech that Europe was "too weak, too slow, too ineffective". Seven years later, "Europe is functioning properly and is better than before, according to Macron, but in reality it is not," said the political scientist, adding that although the EU is synonymous with peace and protection, it is currently facing the war in Ukraine, with the Russian invasion in February 2022 and, in a certain way, the current situation in the Middle East, with the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Read Also: Argentine MFA visits Portugal after passing through China and Brussels (Portuguese version)