The European Parliament has started its tenth legislature this week with a more right-leaning chamber. The far-right forces achieved such growth in the elections of 9-J that, if they were to add up all their MEPs (187), they would form the second largest parliamentary group, above the Social Democrats (136) and only one less than the Popular Party (188). But the extreme right begins the legislature divided because, although the parties share a dose of Euroscepticism and are mostly against immigration, they differ on key points such as the relationship that the EU should have with Russia and the role of NATO in European security. This gap is reflected in their separation into three groups: European Conservatives and Reformists (ERC), Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). The three will be able to exert pressure on the moderate bloc in the hemicycle over the next five years, in which the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the increase in illegal immigration and a possible return of Donald Trump to the White House will continue to be key issues.
European Conservatives and Reformists (ERC)
The best-known group so far is the European Conservatives and Reformists (ERC), founded in 2009. It brings together parties such as Brothers of Italy – led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – and Law and Justice (PiS), the party that governed Poland for almost a decade. In total, it has parties from 18 countries and has 78 MEPs. Before 9-J, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was open to making pacts with them, not considering them “friends of the EU”. [Vladímir] Putin”, as he described the members of the now defunct Identity and Democracy (ID) group.
The reformists consider themselves to be centre-right. In their manifesto for the European elections, they advocate a “reform” of the EU. “We believe that the EU should do less, but better. We will reject any unnecessary centralisation of power in Brussels,” they say. They also oppose the Green Deal, which they believe “forgets ordinary people”, and call for strengthening borders to combat illegal immigration.
Despite this, they boast of “standing firm” alongside Ukraine against Russian aggression and are committed to “improving cooperation” between the EU and NATO. This issue was decisive in Von der Leyen’s rapprochement, although this attempt has eroded to the point that Meloni’s MEPs abstained from voting to keep her at the head of the European Commission. On Thursday, the Italian said she “did not share the method” of her re-election, but was open to continuing to collaborate “on many issues, such as migration.”
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ERC’s flirtation with the European Popular Party has served, for the moment, to allow it to jump over the cordon sanitaire and obtain two of the 14 vice-presidencies in the European Parliament. The group has also taken advantage of the emergence of the other two groups further to its right to appear more moderate.
Patriots for Europe (PfE)
The third group by number of deputies (84) during this stage will be Patriots for Europe, founded just two weeks ago. It is an heir to Identity and Democracy (ID), as it has members such as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally – among the national parties with the most representatives in the European Parliament -, the Dutch Party for Freedom and the Austrian FPÖ, which were already part of the defunct group. The Hungarian Prime Minister, the populist Viktor Orbán, and his party Fidesz, have led the creation of PfE (in its English acronym). All the parties mentioned are in the Government of their respective countries, although the faction also includes formations such as Vox, which left Meloni’s group to support this group, or Chega, from Portugal.
PfE members share a high level of Euroscepticism – and even Europhobia – which can be seen in proposals such as “a return to what was before the [Tratado de] Maastricht”, that is, re-implementing a model like the European Economic Community, which had much more limited powers over the States. For the patriots, European countries are under threat from “globalist forces, unelected bureaucrats and “lobbies”according to their founding manifesto. They are more radical when it comes to immigration: they are determined to protect the European “cultural identity” from “political, economic or religious threats”. Specifically, the identity “fruit of the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian heritage”. Several of their members express rejection of Islam.
In one of the first resolutions of the new European Parliament, MEPs condemned Orbán’s trip to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin – with whom he has a good relationship – on his so-called “peace mission” to Ukraine. The text, approved with 495 votes, calls for “repercussions for Hungary”, which holds the presidency of the EU Council this semester. During his tour, the Hungarian president also visited Xi Jinping in Beijing and Donald Trump in Florida. In fact, the slogan of his six-month term imitates the Republican’s “Make America Great Again” and claims: “Make Europe Great Again”.
The closeness of the Hungarian – the most visible face of PfE, even though he himself is not a member of the European Parliament – to these leaders who are critical of the EU makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for the grand coalition of the Popular Party, Socialists and Liberals in the EU to want to make a pact with his group. It is most likely that the cordon sanitaire that the defunct ID had already imposed on this new group will remain in place.
Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN)
Europe of Sovereign Nations is the smallest group in the whole hemicycle, with only 25 MEPs, and which forms a galaxy of marginal parties from France (Reconquista), Bulgaria (Renaissance) or Poland (with three of the six members of the Confederation), which revolve around Alternative for Germany (AfD), which itself has 14 representatives. Formed only on July 10, ESN (in its English acronym) arose from the rejection of AfD joining one of the other two extremist groups. The National Rally broke with the German formation, with which it shared a group in ID, after some declarations by the then head of the list for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, in which he downplayed the role of the Nazi SS in the Holocaust. They still maintain their rejection. “The comments made by Krah were unacceptable. At this time, we have not changed our position,” said a spokesman for Le Pen’s party last week.
This rejection gave way to the AfD, co-led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, seeking to form its own bloc, in order to obtain advantages such as economic allocations. AfD was the second most voted party in its country on June 9, above the three that make up the government. It is also emerging as the winner in the state elections in three countries from the east, which will be held in September.
In the absence of clear proposals as a group, some statements by its leaders allow us to see what they stand for. Tomio Okamura, from the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy (LDD), maintains that ESN “is against the Green Deal, against immigration, against the Islamisation of Europe”. “We want the powers of Brussels to return to the national level”, he said at a press conference. For his part, René Aust, from AfD, celebrates “making a shared vision of a Europe of homelands a reality”, that is, with the return of powers to the countries. Other so-called sovereigns are also anti-LGBT, ethno-nationalist and openly pro-Russian, like the LDD and the Bulgarian Renaissance.
The Alvise Pérez group, Se Acabó la Fiesta, was also expected to join the party, with three MEPs. But they are starting the legislature as independents together with other marginal formations such as the German ultra-left BWS, SOS Romania – which proposes redrawing its borders to re-establish a Greater Romania – or the Communist Party of Greece.
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