STRASBOURG — French President Emmanuel Macron is ghosting Europe’s liberals.

Two months after the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe announced a partnership with Macron’s La République En Marche party, officials from the pan-European bloc of liberal parties say the line to the French president has gone cold.

An effort to create a common “charter,” on which both sides could campaign, has stalled. And officials from Macron’s party told POLITICO they want to prioritize their national campaign and have no desire to officially join what ALDE officials call “Team Europe” — a slate of seven “lead candidates” they plan to field in May’s European Parliament election.

“Things are moving slowly, and it’s a bit difficult to grasp what En Marche wants,” said a senior ALDE member of the European Parliament. “We hear they would be campaigning for themselves. All of this looks rather thin and fluffy.”

“The recent crisis of the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ [Yellow Jackets] has not helped Macron to solidify his ties with his EU friends,” the MEP added.

“The political situation in France has called a lot of things into question" — En Marche official

As Yellow Jacket protesters weaken Macron’s authority, En Marche officials say they are not in the best position to promote any expansion plan in Europe or show off their friendship with liberals — a politically toxic word in French politics.

Their aim is to focus on getting their candidates elected in France rather than working on a common pan-European campaign with ALDE.

“The political situation in France has called a lot of things into question,” said an En Marche official. “But the overall direction is not changing and we are still working on forming a parliamentary group.”

Such a move would take place after the election. It is a far cry from what En Marche officials were saying in November, when Astrid Panosyan, the party’s head of international affairs, called for a coalition with Europe’s liberals at ALDE’s party congress in Madrid.

She committed La République En Marche to joining ALDE in “a common front, a platform of self-evident policies pertaining to democratic institutions, climate change, social inclusion and collective security.”

Until recently, the two sides had been working on a common charter of principles, such as commitments to the free market, civil rights and the rule of law.

The two-page charter, which would be a basis for cooperation with the liberals, was supposed to be ready by mid-January but some ALDE officials say En Marche and the Elysée are taking a long time to agree internally and respond to proposed drafts. They now say they plan to have the charter finalized in February or the “middle of March at the latest,” as one official told POLITICO.

En Marche officials insist there is no formal alliance of any kind with the Liberals, and the movement has no intention of joining any existing structure in the Parliament, including ALDE. Their preference is to create a new group that would include En Marche, along with at least some elements of ALDE and others.

They also want to set up a European campaign that would be wider than a common campaign with ALDE.

Another ALDE official, however, told POLITICO that during a visit between ALDE and En Marche officials at the Elysée last week, En Marche “made assurances they would stick to their commitment in Madrid,” and “send their officials to electoral meetings of the ALDE group.”

Despite the cold wind blowing from Paris, liberals at the European Parliament are moving on with their plans for the European election.

The leader of Spain’s liberal Ciudadanos party, Albert Rivera, told reporters on Monday that ALDE and En Marche are “already moving forward” with what he called a “common space,” a “common document” and a “program.”

The parties aim to create a sizeable “alliance of European centrists, liberals and progressives, which can put up an intellectual, political and social fight against populism and nationalism,” he said at his party’s headquarters in Madrid. “That’s our goal.”

He added that European liberals were looking at the possibility of an Italian party joining the liberal and progressive European alliance, without providing further details.

Despite the cold wind blowing from Paris, liberals at the European Parliament are moving on with their plans for the European election.

At a recent meeting of the ALDE group, liberal politicians agreed to come up with a slate of leading figures they are calling “Team Europe” to be the faces of their campaign. The group will be “limited to seven, gender-balanced members, with a healthy geographical distribution, and no fixed roles,” the ALDE official said.

The names include some usual suspects like European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager and ALDE’s parliamentary leader Guy Verhofstadt, as well as Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova of the Czech Republic.

But ALDE officials also said other names like Anne Berner, Finland’s transport minister, and Nicola Beer, an MP from the German FDP party, were discussed at the meeting. Ciudadanos is also expected to come up with a candidate. A final decision on the slate will be made at the ALDE congress in Berlin in February.

Diego Torres contributed reporting.