On Thursday, 23 May, the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) announced, via Twitter, its decision “not to recognise the formation of the new political group of New European Democrats/Europe of Nations and Freedoms”.
The group, which was reportedly chaired by Martin Graf from the far-right Austrian party Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), wanted to bring together parliamentarians from Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the Italian party La Lega.
The request to set up this group, which was submitted at the beginning of the year, was debated by the Bureau on numerous occasions, the Bureau eventually referring the matter to the Committee on Rules of Procedure for an opinion.
“Technically, the required conditions were fulfilled”, Petra De Sutter (Groen, Belgium), chair of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, told EUROPE. “The final decision therefore had to be political and based on the Council of Europe’s founding values”, she added.
The PACE Bureau made its final decision on this basis, as confirmed at the end of the meeting by Frank Schwabe, the German President of the Socialist, Democratic and Green Group. “The Council of Europe was founded to protect democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The FPÖ, AfD and La Lega want to destroy democracy and the rule of law and deny people their fundamental rights. Many of their members are racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic, which is fundamentally contrary to the organisation”, he said. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)