“Europe is dead,” Ilegales sang in 1986. And now, almost four decades later, Vox and its allies in the ultra international They talk about Europa Viva 24. The extreme right has gone from opposing the European Union to wanting to transform it; and from asking to leave the community club like their British colleagues with Brexit, to setting the agenda as in the Migration Pact recently signed by the 27. This Sunday Vox meets in Madrid with the ultra-Argentine, Javier Milei; the Chilean Pinochetista, José Antonio Kast, and the main leaders of the European extreme right, such as Marine Le Pen –predicted winner of the European elections in France–; or the former Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiezcki.
The summit in Vistalegre, four days before the start of the European election campaign on June 9, will also be a tribute to the Israeli Government that is committing genocide in Gaza. To do this, Santiago Abascal’s party will have the Minister of Diaspora Affairs of Israel and the fight against Anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli.
“I know that Sánchez does not have a moral compass” and that he is an “extremely weak leader,” Chikli said in remarks at the headquarters of the Israel Europe Press Association in Brussels four weeks ago of the Spanish president.
In addition, the ultra meeting will have video messages sent by two heads of Government. That of Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister, leader of Fratelli D’Italia and president of the European ultra group ECR (where Vox and the Polish PiS are located); and that of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.
Both PiS’s Poland and Orbán’s Hungary have been the subject of successive proceedings by Brussels for violating the separation of powers and the rights of women and LGTBIQ+ people. The situation in Poland, after the electoral victory of the coalition of the current Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, is being redirected, but the polls on June 9 will once again show the ultra strength in Poland, as well as in Hungary.
Indeed, poll data point to an advance by far-right and ultra forces in the next elections. An advance that has already been evident in the European Council room, where of the 27 governments there are hardly any progressive governments left and those on the right are growing with or without the extreme right.
This map may show, according to the polls, that the third group is no longer that of the liberals, but that of Identity and Democracy, due to the rise of Le Pen and the German ultras of the AfD. And that ID plus ECR can add more than 150 seats, more than the 144 that the polls give to the socialists.
And what can that mean? That the European Parliament stops being the most ambitious and progressive body in the EU, compared to the European Commission and the Council of the EU. Thus, the fact that governments are more conservative translates into what the 27 in the Council approve or do not approve, but also in the fact that the commissioners that each Executive sends to the future European Commission will be more conservative than the outgoing ones…
And if the European Parliament turns to the right, that will mean that the historic majority that has governed Europe since the end of a Second World War marked by the victory over fascism and Nazism, that is, the alliance between social democracy, Christian democrats and liberals, It can turn to stop progressive agendas, as has already happened in the last stretch of the legislature that now ends the Green Pact.
In what sense? Well, in the sense that the popular Europeans will see themselves in the center of the board: they will approve with their left – social democrats, liberals and greens – what interests them – like the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen -. And what they are not interested in, they will stop or amend with a right-wing alliance with liberals and ultras.
In the same way, the communicating vessels will show a progressive pole diminished by the results of the socialists, the Greens – who experienced their great electoral moment in 2019 – and the Left in the 27 countries of the EU.
Von der Leyen keeps the door open for Meloni
The candidate of the European People’s Party made it clear in the first electoral debate ten days ago that the cordon sanitaire was imposed on far-right forces such as the Alternative for Germany, but left up in the air what she would do with the Conservatives and Reformists group.
The candidate of the European People’s Party for the presidency of the European Commission missed one of the main questions of her opponents: will she agree with the group of Conservatives and Reformists of which the Fratelli d’Italia of Giorgia Meloni and Vox are part ? “It depends on how the composition of the European Parliament is and who ends up in each group,” was the response of the current president of the European Commission, thus leaving the door open to relying on the extreme right.
The one who did put the cordon sanitaire was the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) by responding with a resounding “no” to the question posed to him by the liberal candidate from that country, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. It is not the first time that Von der Leyen opens the door to the extreme right of Meloni or Santiago Abascal. When he officially presented his candidacy, he replied to journalists that his conditions were “to work with pro-European, pro-NATO, pro-Ukraine, groups that clearly support democratic values.”
Thus, Von der Leyen has ended up assuming the positions of Manfred Weber, president of the European PP. Weber, who unlike the Polish prime minister and former president of the EPP, Donald Tusk, has sponsored pacts with the extreme right, such as those of Forza Italia with Giorgia Meloni or those of the Spanish PP with Santiago Abascal, explains his position like this: “Everyone The allies we work with must be, first of all, pro-European, that is, constructive at the European level; They must be pro-Ukraine and pro-Israel, at this moment in history; and they must be pro-rule of law. And these three key criteria define our firewall towards the far right.”
In this sense, Weber, of German origin, has included the requirement of being pro-Israel at a time when the Tel Aviv Government continues to kill tens of thousands of Palestinians with its indiscriminate bombings on Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7 , which caused 1,200 deaths.
“Thus, any type of conversation with the AfD is unthinkable,” Weber argues about the extreme right in his country: “With Le Pen it is unthinkable. This is unthinkable. There is an agreement within the EPP on this type of firewall. And we put it into practice.”
That is, neither Le Pen nor AfD, but the rest, like Meloni and his group, ECR, which includes Vox. The Italian party of the EPP, Forza Italia, agrees with the first. With the latter, the Spanish party of the EPP, the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, co-governs in many places.
Immigration offensive
The Migration and Asylum Pact that the EU recently agreed to complicate access to asylum has not even come into force and there is already an offensive to further toughen the conditions of migrants who arrive in community territory. Fifteen European governments, many of them with members of the extreme right, have sent a letter to the European Commission in which they demand to study new measures, such as the possibility of expelling immigrants who are rescued in the EU to centers in third countries outside the EU. the sea so that they do not end up on European soil and even deport people who are waiting for their asylum applications to be resolved. In its electoral manifesto, the European People’s Party also supports the so-called ‘Rwanda model’ that the United Kingdom has adopted.
“The current challenges in relation to the EU asylum and migration system, including the sharp increase in irregular arrivals, are unsustainable. Our main responsibility and commitment is to maintain stability and social cohesion and avoid the risk of polarization in European societies and the loss of unity in the family of EU Member States”, point out those responsible for the Interior of Denmark, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania and Finland.
The ministers of these fifteen countries also call for strengthening agreements with third countries that until now focused on preventing, as far as possible, the departure of migrants to Europe and collaboration in return processes. Among these controversial agreements is the one recently sealed with Tunisia, an authoritarian country that the EU pays in exchange for controlling the borders, as is the case with Morocco.
The EPP and the “normalization” of the extreme right
The European People’s Party has been left out of the condemnation of the attacks perpetrated in recent weeks by ultras against left-wing politicians and parties and the call not to “normalize” the extreme right by withdrawing from a joint declaration [puedes consultarla aquí en inglés] signed by socialists, liberals, greens and the left group in the European Parliament negotiated following the beating of the German socialist MEP Matthias Ecke, who required hospital care.
“The rise of radical and far-right parties in Europe is a threat to our common project, its values and the civil liberties and fundamental rights of its citizens,” says the manifesto, supported by socialists, liberals, greens and the left, and that it has been negotiated after a beating of a German socialist MEP and mentions the attacks on the PSOE headquarters, as well as violent attacks in Stockholm or against the homes of politicians in Belgium.
Source: www.eldiario.es
