Renew, the European liberal family where the right-wing liberals (VVD) of the Netherlands sit, views with extreme concern the decision of the party of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte to agree to form a government with far-right leader Geert Wilders. “I express my total disapproval and strong concern at the evolution of the coalition talks in the Netherlands,” the president of Renew, Valérie Hayer, declared this Thursday.
The Frenchwoman is leading a tough electoral campaign ahead of the European elections in June where her party is expected to lose the third place it currently occupies in the European Parliament, displaced by the far-right ID groups (where the National Regrouping of Marine Le Pen or Alternative for Germany, AfD) and ECR (with Vox). Therefore, he cannot afford to lose any votes or strength.
Especially marked by the situation in France, where the RN leads the polls ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s liberals, led by Hayer, the French MEP has been very clear: the extreme right is a “red line” that her formation It’s not going to cross. Following the violent attack on German Social Democrat MEP Matthias Ecke, Renew signed a declaration last week together with the European families of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the Greens and the Left “in defense of democracy”. The formations – without the European People’s Party (EPP), which rejects a strict cordon sanitaire – committed to “never cooperate or form a coalition with the extreme right or with radical parties at any level.”
“Compromise with the extreme right is not acceptable,” Hayer has now reiterated. Wilders’ PPV “is the opposite of what we defend in terms of values, the rule of law, the economy, the environment and, of course, Europe,” he warned in a statement, in which he announced that he would bring together the parties that are part of the Renew group on June 10, one day after the European elections.
The Greens of the European Parliament have also expressed their concern about the alliance of Rutte’s liberal party. In another statement, they have similarly urged the EPP, the political family of the president of the European Commission and conservative candidate to repeat the position, Ursula von der Leyen, to “not accept parties that govern with a member of the extreme right of ID”, as is Wilders’ party. Two of the formations that will also participate in the future Dutch coalition government, the New Social Contract (NCS) and the Peasant-Citizen Movement (BBB), aspire to enter the EPP after the European elections.
“The extreme right cannot come to power alone. For a long time, we could rely on liberals and conservatives to keep the far right out of power. Now it seems that cynicism, opportunism and indifference have prevailed,” lamented the head of the green list, Terry Reintke.
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