On Tuesday 16 January in Strasbourg, the leader of the EPP group in the European Parliament, Germany’s Manfred Weber, made it clear that his political family would not be doing business with the “nationalists” in the European elections, due to be held from 6 to 9 June.
“Our principles are clear, and this also defines the options we have on the table for our partners, for developing the European Union in the future. And that fundamentally excludes all nationalists at European level”, he declared.
While the door thus appears to be closed to the far right, the Bavarian Christian Democrat did not explicitly do the same for the conservatives in the ECR group in Parliament, only stating that “all parties that want to work with us must be in favour of Europe”.
Among the EPP’s historic allies and within the pro-European groups, several voices have recently criticised Mr Weber’s lack of a clear position.
“We cannot accept that the EPP should normalise a large part of the ECR party or its correlatives. [...] If the ECR and the extreme right grow, it will of course be more difficult. We hope that the large groups will form a majority and that the EPP will remain pro-European”, commented Pedro Marques (S&D, Portuguese) on Thursday 11 January.
Two days earlier, the Renew Europe group’s analysis was similar. “Even if we have a majority, there cannot be an EPP, ECR, Renew Europe alliance with the current composition of ECR. Either ECR cleans up its act and sorts out the parties that are reputable and the parties that are not - and I’m prepared to take a look - but, at this stage, that’s strictly impossible”, said the group’s former leader, France’s Stéphane Séjourné (see EUROPE 13324/1).
These reactions come at a time when the EPP Group has been trying to forge closer links with the ECR and Identity and Democracy Groups over the last few months. In July 2023, the three political families voted en bloc to reject the Nature Restoration Act. The motion to reject the text was defeated by only twelve votes, before the text - weakened - was narrowly saved (see EUROPE 13221/1).
“At some point, the EPP will have to say what is acceptable and what is not. Enough of doublespeak [...] In this European Parliament, there have already been alliances between the EPP, ID and ECR to block texts”, pointed out the Chair of the S&D group, Spain’s Iratxe García Pérez.
The European People’s Party, which Mr Weber also chairs, will be holding its electoral congress in Bucharest on 6 and 7 March. On this occasion, the group will appoint its leading candidate (‘Spitzenkandidat’).
“I hope that the other (political groups) will be able to compete and put forward strong and convincing candidates for the posts to be filled. As the EPP, we are doing our job and we are winning the elections”, concluded Mr Weber. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin with the editorial staff)