Finally, the extreme right has managed to open a new stage in the European institutions. The European legislature was launched with a crack that could endanger institutional stability. The coalition governed by conservatives, socialists and liberals has had more than one crisis due to the weakness of the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, for agreeing with the far right on immigration issues and the green agenda. This Thursday, after the union of the vote of the European People’s Party (EPP) with the European far-right formations that are divided into three groups (Patriots, ECR and ESN) to approve a law with lower environmental requirements for companies, the fracture has been consummated.
“Allying with the far right is a sign that the pro-European center is losing confidence in its own project, and the consequences for Europe’s climate goals and economic leadership will be felt for years,” says Tsvetelina Kuzmanova, from the Institute for Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge.
After the vote, the ultra groups assumed the situation as a moment of change that could form “a new alternative majority” in Europe. The leader of Vox in the Patriots group of the European Parliament, stressed after the vote that “the existence of an alternative majority that challenges the leftist green consensus for the first time. This is not just a one-time victory; it is a demonstration that the alternative majority is already working and that patriotic policies are setting the course in Brussels.”
Left MP Lynn Boylan explained that it “illustrates the EPP’s willingness to abandon its traditional centrist allies and move forward with the support of far-right groups to pass its deregulation agenda, setting a precedent for future legislation in Parliament for the remainder of the term.”
This is the first time that a parliamentary majority made up of conservatives and the extreme right has voted together to adopt a legislative file. Until now, the EPP had only agreed with the ultras in the votes on some non-binding resolutions with little political impact.
Although it is not expected that there will be a change in the makeup of the European Commission, where an alliance of conservatives, socialists and liberals governs, the breaking of this red line will serve the popular party to break with the progress of the green agenda that was achieved in the previous legislature and promote a tougher immigration policy. Socialist MEP René Repasi pointed out that “it is a black day for European democracy. We are sleepwalking towards the breaking of a taboo, the consequences of which are unpredictable.”
Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, explains that “the European Parliament’s vote on the Omnibus Simplification Directive redefines the political majority that will govern Europe from now until 2029. From this day, Von der Leyen’s political majority will be only the right and the extreme right, with devastating repercussions for the economy, society and the democratic foundations of the EU, allowing the US administration to intensify its influence over the EU.”
Another of the far-right groups such as ECR, where Fratelli d’Italia is located, the formation of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has highlighted that “this vote shows that a new majority is possible in Europe, one that prioritizes competitiveness, legal clarity and space for innovation.”
The co-president of the ECR Group in the European Parliament, Nicola Procaccini, praised the ideological coincidences of Von der Leyen’s speech in Parliament. “For years, from these seats, the ECR has warned that the Union was being strangled, driven by a self-destructive pseudo-environmentalist impulse. They called us anti-European, they told us we lacked ambition. Today, even the Council is calling for a ‘pragmatic’ and ‘profitable’ transition. Better late than never.”
Martin Schirdewan, co-president of the Left group, warned that “the Von der Leyen coalition is history. The EPP no longer has a ‘retaining wall’ to the right: It voted together with the three right-wing groups, thus beginning to undo central decisions of the last legislature.”
A message that conservatives try to nullify. The president of the European Popular Party in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, has tried to downplay the failure to fulfill his promise that it would be a red line to reach an agreement with the extreme right, as the socialists reminded him when they released a video of him claiming that they would not reach any agreement with the anti-European forces.
Weber has argued that an election promise to dismantle bureaucracy has been fulfilled. “Our proposals to ease the burden on small and medium-sized businesses have won a clear majority in the European Parliament. The AfD votes were not decisive in this case.”
The German far-right AfD belong to the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, which voted alongside the EPP. MEP Pascale Piera, from the ultra Patriots group, said: “Of course, we have been in contact with the EPP. They called us every day to make sure that we would vote for the amendments, and of course, we were going to vote for them since they were ours. So we claimed this victory.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
