The European Parliament’s plenary session on Wednesday 18 January focused on the terrorist risk posed by violent right-wing extremist movements. This debate is taking place against a background of attacks on democratic institutions, such as the foiled attack on the German ‘Bundestag’ last December.
Swedish Minister for European Affairs Jessika Roswall and European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, who attended the debate, emphasised the transnational nature of these violent right-wing networks, which are organised online (see EUROPE 13088/35). They recalled that in this respect, the regulation on the removal of online terrorist content (see EUROPE 12709/2) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13068/6) were effective tools to combat terrorism.
Moreover, “when democracy is under attack, Russia is never far away”, Johansson stressed, recalling the links between these networks and Russian groups. To protect itself from foreign interference with public opinion, the Commission will present its package for the defence of democracy (see EUROPE 13084/8) in May, she recalled.
Finally, they stressed the central role of Europol and the need to strengthen police and judicial cooperation.
On the MEPs’ side, the EPP, S&D and Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left groups strongly condemned the far-right terrorist acts, expressing concern about a “normalisation” of these groups and their rhetoric.
However, as in the last debate on the trivialisation of the far right in Strasbourg (see EUROPE 13046/11), the discussions also took on the air of political confrontation. Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe, French), for example, called on the EPP to “stop courting the far right”, at the risk of losing its “integrity”. The ID and ECR groups, on the other hand, retorted by denouncing “ideological blindness” and insisting on the dangers posed by jihadist terrorism. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)