Italy,
France, Poland and Hungary have Conservative Majorities in the EU Parliament. How
strong is right-wing populism after the European elections? By Florence Schulz | EURACTIV.de |
translated by Daniel Eck, 6/5/19.
Following the European elections, a new right-wing
alliance will be formed in the European Parliament. EURACTIV Germany looks into how influential right-wing parties will
actually be from now on. The
fear of a shift to the right drove more voters to the polls in the European
elections than we have seen in the past 20 years. Right-wing and nationalist parties have gained a sizeable number
of seats in the European Parliament.
In
Italy, France, Poland and Hungary they were even in the majority. The question
now arises of how influential these nationalist groups will be in Brussels. The European Parliament will be
welcoming the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations, or EAPN. Initiated by
Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, it is intended to gather a broad
nationalist front in Brussels.
A
“Europe of fatherlands” is the declared goal. On the weekend before the
European elections, representatives of the planned alliance gathered in Milan
and expressed their will to fight. The event was attended by tens of thousands
of people. Orbán
in demand. Currently,
the right-wing populist parties in the European Parliament are scattered in
three different parliamentary groups. One of them, the EFDD faction dominated
by the British UKIP, will dissolve if the UK leaves the EU.
Under
Salvini’s plan, the new EAPN group will emerge from the “Europe of Nations and
Freedom” (ENF) group. It includes nine parties that so far include the German
AfD, the French Rassemblement National, the Flemish political party Vlaams
Belang, as well as the Austrian Freedom Party FPÖ, and would bring together 73
parliamentarians.
Missing
are the Polish PiS, which the EAPN has already refused to accept into the group,
as well as the Hungarian Fidesz, which now sits with the European People’s
Party.
Viktor
Orbán, therefore, has a key role to play: he is still officially a member of
Manfred Weber’s political group, the EPP. But, the group temporarily suspended
Orbán’s party in March.
It
is no secret that Salvini and Orbán get along well. In May, the Hungarian prime
minister received his Italian colleague in Budapest, calling him “my hero and
companion of destiny.” But officially Orbán has not committed himself to the EAPN,
possibly due to differences with Marine Le Pen, speculates Julian Rappold, a
research associate at the German Society for Foreign Policy. Orban could also
be joining his Polish colleague in the group of European Conservatives and
Reformists (ECR).
Divided on
the issues. For the nationalist minority, it
makes sense to form a group like EAPN, Rappold told EURACTIV. Anyone who sits
in a parliamentary group and receives additional financial support is entitled
to key parliamentary positions and is, therefore, more visible in the EU
Parliament.“But I am assuming that in the five years of the new European
Parliament, we will be seeing the cracks with regard to certain issues, which
could lead to tensions. And the overall voting power should be rather low.” According
to Rappold, there could also be clashes over the leadership role within the
faction.
There is a broad consensus on the
need to strengthen nation-states, the need to reform the EU and to limit its competences
as much as possible. But views differ widely on public debt, environmental
protection, economic and social policy.
Italy is pushing for the
distribution of asylum seekers among all member states, which the governments
of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are strictly opposed to.
The AfD recently criticised Italy’s
budgetary policy and is pursuing a liberal market course, something that is
likely to be opposed by Le Pen’s Rassemblement National.
And how far does one even want to be
removed from the EU? On the issue of how far one wants to be removed from the
EU, there is no consensus even inside the national political parties. When AfD
members initially called for a “Dexit” in their election programme, both party
leaders Meuthen and Gauland intervened and softened the demand.
Disagreements between the
nationalists are clearly reflected in their voting behaviours. In the previous
legislative period, ENF parliamentarians were unanimous in their vote in only
69% of the cases, according to VoteWatch. Members of the political group Europe
of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) voted the same way in less than half of
the cases.
As a point of comparison: the
Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament voted unanimously in 95% of the
cases.
Battling
for a majority. Even if the parties of the EAPN and
the ECR were to settle their differences on certain issues, they would still be
faced with a centrist pro-European majority – despite serious losses of votes
by the two largest groups, the EPP and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D).
Parties in the European Parliament
do not have to form firm coalitions but can form changing majorities depending
on the topic, which is a special feat that characterises the institution. In
this way, different majorities can always be formed.
“Of course, this will continue this
way. But coalition-building will undoubtedly become more complex if a majority
with different factions needs to be formed every time. You have to build
bridges between the factions and that will delay the process. It could also be
that more controversial issues are no longer on the agenda,” said Rappold.
It is therefore very likely that the
strengthened right-wing parties will at least be able to smash majorities on
issues that are more controversial. “So far, the goal of most populist parties
has not really been to actively pursue politics. Instead, they have used the
European Parliament as a stage to send their message back home to incorporate
their issues on the political agenda. This will probably continue being the way
they operate,” Rappold said.
Another challenge will be the people
that take on the role of Commissioners. “The president of the Commission will
have to use a great deal of diplomatic skill to ensure the Commissioners’ posts
are filled. And large member states are insisting on a correspondingly
important office,” Rappold said.
Vetos in
the Council of the EU. So what is the influence of
right-wing populist parties after the EU elections? On the one hand, the
European Parliament is still controlled by a clear majority of pro-European
forces. On the other hand, it will probably be more complicated to make
decisions and more difficult to reach unanimity. Particularly on issues such as
climate protection, trade policy and security policy, the EAPN and the ECR
could hamper majority voting.
In any case, Rappold sees greater
potential for conflict in the Council, where individual states are capable of
blocking decisions, for example on asylum policies, with a simple
veto. This makes electoral victories of national populist parties in EU
member states more dangerous for the EU than right-wing alliances in the
European Parliament.
Comments
Marxist Cult Members
in the EU Parliament can’t be happy about the surge of Conservatives who were
elected in May 2019.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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