Meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 November for the first time in the 30 years' history of the GUE/NGL group at the European Parliament, the leaders and senior representatives of the various member parties decided to keep the name and open, confederal structure of the group unchanged.
Certain parties that are seen as the most pro-reform, such as Germany's Die Linke and the Greek Syriza coalition, were in favour of rationalising the structure, to better prioritise and coordinate the political actions and dossiers, and possibly to abandon the consensus decision-making in favour of majority voting.
However, several parties – particularly the Danish anti-EU party Red-Green Alliance and the Portuguese Communist Party (Partido comunista português or PCP) – insisted on retaining the confederal structure, in a bid to preserve the parties' autonomy. The PCP is reported to have mooted the possibility of giving the member parties a veto.
The group's name will also remain unchanged. On this point, several parties, principally the members of the European Left Party (EL), are reported to have called for the name to be simplified, for instance by calling it The Left Group.
However, other formations, such as the Danish party, insisted on retaining a reference to the Nordic Green Left (NGL), again in order to preserve their full political sovereignty.
The question of creating a new radical left-wing group within the next European Parliament, to rival the GUE/NGL, appears to be off the table, although it was believed to be a possibility for a while following the launch of the 'Now the People' movement (see EUROPE 12050) and the national strategy of some of its founders.
The Portuguese Bloco de esquerda, initiator of the movement alongside Podemos of Spain and La France Insoumise of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said that it would like to stay within the GUE/NGL and keep this group as the political base of the radical left. La France insoumise, however, is reported to have stressed the need to clarify the GUE/NGL's position, to mark a total break with the European treaties. Neither Die Linke nor Syriza share this view.
With regard to this, the Syriza coalition had the most “social democrat-compatible” discourse, according to certain observers, referring to the possibility of opening up a progressive front up to the ranks of the Liberals to block the progress of the far-right forces, in line with a proposal of Dimitrios Papadimoulis of Greece (see EUROPE 12095).
The Irish party Sinn Fein proposed laying down the principle that oppositions between member parties at national level should not interfere with the political group's life in the group's statutes, in reference to tensions in Greece affecting relations between Syriza and Popular Unity (which is extremely critical of Syriza's governmental actions), and in Portugal, between Bloco and PCP.
52nd member of the group. A former member of the S&D, Emmanuel Maurel of France, became the 52nd member of the group, having launched a cooperation platform with fellow Frenchman Younous Omarjee in late October (see EUROPE 12124).
Gabriele Zimmer steps down. At the start of the meeting, the president of the group, Germany's Gabriele Zimmer, confirmed that she would not be standing in the European elections of May 2019. The leader of the group since March 2012, she has been an MEP since 2004. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)