Put on the agenda of the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg by the S&D group, the debate on the trivialisation of the far right in the EU on Wednesday 19 October was an opportunity for political blame games. Left-wing MEPs are targeting centre-right parties associating with the extremes in national governments, particularly in Italy and Sweden.
Refusing the extreme right
“Government alliances between conservative and liberal parties and far-right parties trivialise attitudes that cross all red lines”, denounced Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, Spanish), explicitly targeting Renew Europe and the EPP.
The demands of the socialists were shared by the other left-wing parties. Alicia Kuhnke (Greens/EFA, Swedish) deplored that nationalist ideas are “helped by conservative and liberal politicians blinded by their own gain”. Niyazi Kizilyürek (The Left, Cypriot), on the other hand, insisted that “the far right exploits the dissatisfaction of the angry masses and the resentment against the political class”.
Similarly, Valerie Hayer (Renew Europe, French) called for mobilising for the core values of the EU and “sending these ideas back to the past for good”. She reacted by saying that her group “did not wait to dissociate itself from the Swedish Liberals” while the S&D does not stand up against “the Maltese Socialist Party or the Bulgarian Socialists close to the Kremlin”.
Respecting elections
On the EPP side, Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish) acknowledged the challenges in Hungary, Poland or Malta, but refuted the attacks on Sweden. “We need to criticise where we see problems and where governments are doing wrong [and not] stick labels”, he defended.
Faced with the accusations, Laura Huhtasaari (ID, Finland) recalled that “referendums and respecting the results is part of democracy”, calling on the left to respect the voters’ choices. On the same page was Patryk Jaki (ECR, Polish): “True democracy for you is only when the left wins. [...] But real democracy is listening to the people”.
Concrete solutions to extremism
The Vice-President of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, recalled that its role is not to “engage in domestic political fights”, but to “support fair competition”. “President Čaputová (of Slovakia) spoke about the influence of radicalisation on society and the increase in extremism which is fuelled by some political parties. It is a very serious problem that it is now, for some political powers, useful to fly on the waves of hatred”, she stressed.
Finally, she recalled that the Media Freedom Act (see EUROPE 13023/1), the rules on transparency and targeting of political advertising or the reform of party financing (see EUROPE 12840/4) contribute to combating extremism. The Czech Minister for European Affairs, Mikuláš Bek, assured that the Czech Presidency of the EU Council is committed to making progress on these last two issues by the end of the year. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)