Launching her official marketing campaign for a second mandate on the helm of the European Fee, Ursula von der Leyen has rejected collaboration with extremist events whereas leaving the door open to working with rightwing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group — which is projected to attain huge wins in June.
When requested whether or not she could be prepared to work with the ECR, von der Leyen mentioned that she would with any group that’s ”pro-European, pro-Nato and pro-Ukraine”.
”Each European election brings a change within the composition of various political events and political teams, so the content material counts,” she advised the press alongside EPP chief and fellow German, Manfred Weber, after she was confirmed because the European Individuals’s Get together (EPP) lead candidate to change into the subsequent fee president.
”Those that are defending democracy towards eurosceptics and those that defend our values towards [Vladimir] Putin’s buddies are those I wish to work with and I do know I can work with,” she added.
Weber, for his half, mentioned that the EPP ”pink traces are clearly outlined” — sure to Europe, sure to Ukraine and sure to the rule of regulation. ”That is our pink line to all extremists.”
However he additionally added that polls indicating a major swing to the best within the EU parliament are ”worrisome”.
”Those that are campaigning towards Europe and are buddies of Putin are getting stronger and stronger,” he warned.
Whereas mainstream pro-EU events are prone to stay the bulk, forecasts for 2024 present that the 2 largest gainers would be the ECR and the far-right Id and Democracy (ID) group, which might make up practically 1 / 4 of the chamber mixed.
With the Reconquête! get together of French far-right chief Éric Zemmour and different potential teams becoming a member of the ECR, the group doubtlessly might change into the third-biggest get together within the EU parliament.
Below this situation, the group would have extra energy to shift the entire political stability to the best and centre-right, away from the centre-left, and ”be included within the equipment of the European Parliament,” an ECR supply talking on the situation of anonymity advised EUobserver.
The ECR is at present the fifth-largest group within the hemicycle — having 68 MEPs out of a complete of 705, together with MEP Nicolas Bay, who joined the group earlier this month.
They’d 62 MEPs on the earlier election 2019, however they gained six extra after the redistribution of the UK’s seats in 2020.
The group is clearly dominated by Polish MEPs (27) and Italian MEPs (10) — with the events of former Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki (PiS) and Georgia Meloni (Brothers of Italy) as co-chairs of the ECR.
However potential modifications might happen after the elections.
Prime minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz get together is predicted to hitch the group — however this might immediate Flemish nationalist NVA or the Czech delegation to go away the ECR.
The far-right Swedish Democrats have additionally threatened to stop the ECR, if Fidesz joins, complicating an already cloudy set of doable outcomes after June.
Eurorealism vs Rule of Legislation
The ECR was based in 2009 as an ’anti-federalist’ various to the mainstream centre-right EPP by the British Conservative get together and its allies.
Within the 2009 Prague Declaration, the group outlined place as ”eurorealism” however they have been broadly seen as ’gentle’ eurosceptics since they argued primarily towards EU over-regulation and in favour of nationwide competencies.
And so they have all the time insisted there are basic variations between the ECR, and the overtly hard-right Id and Democracy (ID) group which was launched after the final EU elections.
However potential new MEPs, akin to Fidesz lawmakers, might drive the ECR get together line additional to the best.
Previously, the group confronted controversy involving a few of its member events or particular person politicians.
The far-right Different for Germany (AfD), which has not too long ago triggered protests throughout the nation towards its mass pressured remigration plans, was briefly a member of the ECR.
And the ECR expelled German AfD MEP Marcus Pretzell in 2016 over feedback about capturing migrants.
Poland’s PiS, a key member of the ECR, has been accused of dismantling the rule of regulation within the nation — with a number of controversies starting from limiting press freedom, undermining the judiciary, a virtually whole abortion ban to makes an attempt to introduce so-called ’LGBT-free zones’ and supporting coal-based power manufacturing.
Whereas the PiS misplaced October’s home election in Poland, it maintains assist amongst sure elements of the Polish inhabitants.
In 2014, the ECR additionally accepted the unconventional anti-immigration populists of the Danish Individuals’s Get together and the Finns Get together. Each left in 2019. The Danish Individuals’s Get together joined the far-right ID and the Finns Get together rejoined ECR in 2023.
The ECR is clearly pro-Nato and pro-Ukraine, but the extent to which the EPP can agree with ECR members’ stance on the rule of regulation stays to be seen.