Kilcullen twin's mayor is running for Europe

The mayor of Kilcullen's new twin town is one of the candidates for French president Emmanuel Macron's party in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament, writes Brian Byrne.

Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, who led the inaugural twinning delegation to Kilcullen over the St Patrick's Festival weekend, will be part of the 'Renaissance' campaign of the La République En Marche (LREM) party, which has formed links with new liberal and centrist parties in Europe, and with the ALDE alliance of European liberal parties.

Ms Yon-Courtin, who is also Vice-President of the County Council of Calvados and the Urban Community Caen la Mer, is a former lawyer for the European Commission and was international adviser to the Cabinet of the President of the Competition Authority. She has also been France's foreign trade advisor since 2013.

She says she is proud to be among the candidates of the Renaissance list led by Nathalie Loiseau, which will put their collective expertise 'in the service of the European project'. "For Normandy I take the challenge," she writes on her Facebook page.

President Macron says that 'never since the Second World War has Europe been so necessary. And yet, Europe has never been so much in danger', and that Brexit is the 'symbol of the crisis of Europe' ... furthered by 'the exploiters of anger, supported by the false information, who promise everything and its opposite'.

(Photos from Stéphanie Yon-Courtin Facebook page.)

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