STRASBOURG — French President Emmanuel Macron mounted a charm offensive at the European Parliament on Tuesday but stood by his decision to remain apart from its political groups.

At the same time, Macron insisted that he supports the so-called Spitzenkandidat, or “lead candidate” process, which calls for the next European Commission president to be chosen from the nominees of the major parties.

“I don’t belong to any political family that is represented among you,” he told the Parliament after giving a speech and engaging in debate at a plenary session in Strasbourg. “It is my freedom.”

Macron upended French politics by winning the presidency last year as an independent, shunning his nation’s traditional political parties. And while he has pushed aggressively for big policy changes in the EU, he has refrained from joining any pan-European political family.

With the next European Parliament election just over a year away, there has been intense speculation about whether Macron might reshape the EU political landscape by joining one of the main groups, perhaps the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe.

Rather than affiliating with any of the groups in Parliament, Macron has so far opted to bypass them, and instead build ties between his La République En Marche party and other national parties — fueling speculation that he is working to build his own, new group that he will be able to control.

Many MEPs, particularly from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), have been irritated by Macron’s desire to fly solo in European politics.

They argue that Macron will need to join or form a group if he is serious about exerting influence on European politics, because it is the only way to  secure official funding and nominate a Spitzenkandidat in next year’s campaign.

Standing apart

During his speech on Tuesday, Macron repeatedly flattered Parliament, telling MEPs they were the embodiment of European democracy.

But he chastised the Parliament for not supporting his proposal to create transnational candidate lists for next year’s election, rather than maintaining the current process relying solely on national lists.

And when it came time for him to respond to MEPs’ comments in the debate, Macron said he would keep his distance.

“I have the right to not enter in your deliberations,” he added, “which aren’t those of the Council nor of the French president.

“I am simply not involved in a political family of your parliament.”

Earlier this year, Macron pushed other EU leaders at a European Council to affirm that a Spitzenkandidat nominee, as a matter of EU law, could not automatically become Commission president and the Council could not commit in advance to choosing such a nominee. Doing so would virtually guarantee a victory for a big, traditional party, most likely the EPP, which currently controls the most seats in Parliament.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Macron said he “believed” in the Spitzenkandidat process. But he argued that the process would have been even better if the Parliament had also supported a single European constituency for the next election by allowing transnational lists.

Earlier this year, Parliament voted against allowing such lists.

“I think it is good,” he said, referring to the Spitzenkandidat process. But supporting transnational lists “would have been more democratic” and a “beginning of European demos.”