AAPA members had breakfast with Christopher Weissberg on May 13, 2024, to hear the Assemblée Nationale deputy’s views on the outlook for EU and US elections, the increasing restrictions on immigration, and his efforts to serve his 250,000-strong constituency of French citizens residing in the US and Canada.
Weissberg holds meetings throughout North America with his constituents and says their top three issues are education (for their children), visas (and immigration), and retirement pensions. He sees the current spate of international tensions in Ukraine and Gaza turning overseas French residents towards the far right politically, and is concerned about what he believes is increasing extremism, as seen in increasing support for Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen. However, he believes a solid French coalition candidacy could handily defeat extremists of the far right and far left at the presidential and parliamentary polls in three years, and in near-term local elections. He remains concerned about a shift towards the right in EU elections in June.
A deputy since August 2022, Weissberg is a French-US citizen, spends his time between France, New York State, and Montreal, and is particularly committed to promoting transatlantic relations.