The leaders of the S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left groups in the European Parliament are calling on all European democratic parties “to firmly reject any normalisation, cooperation or alliance with the far-right and radical parties”, in a statement published on Wednesday 8 May.
This appeal is addressed in particular to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and candidate for the European Christian Democrat political family, who had not ruled out the possibility of forming a majority in the European Parliament around her; this would also include specific elements from the sovereignist ECR group, during the Maastricht electoral debate (see EUROPE 13402/17, 13406/11).
“We expect [all European democratic parties] to include this formally and unequivocally in their election manifestos and party declarations”, they emphasised.
The signatories – Iratxe García Pérez, President of the S&D Group, Valérie Hayer, President of the Renew Europe Group, Terry Reintke and Philippe Lamberts, Co-Presidents of the Greens/EFA Group, and Manon Aubry and Martin Schirdewan, Co-Presidents of The Left Group – strongly condemn the recent brutal attack on MEP Matthias Ecke (S&D, German) (see EUROPE 13405/17), MEP Kai Gehring and other political families.
The candidate at the top of the list of European Socialists, Nicolas Schmit, regretted that the EPP group had refused to sign the declaration. “This shows again their ambiguity, as revealed by Ursula Von der Leyen during last week’s debate.I make a new appeal to EPP and their leader: show voters where you stand on the extreme right, as we did with our PES Berlin Declaration’” (see EUROPE 13405/3), he said on the X platform. On the same day, at the CDU Congress, the EPP’s lead candidate Ursula von der Leyen harshly attacked the German AfD party, which sits in the far-right ID group in Parliament, and its links with autocratic countries such as Russia and China. She reiterated that after the European elections in June, those who wanted to ‘work’ with the Christian Democrats would have to “fulfil three cumulative criteria”, namely being clearly pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law. The European Parliament’s four political groups also condemned the acts of violence committed by far-right supporters in Stockholm, the attacks on party headquarters in Spain and the targeting of the homes of political leaders in Belgium. They also strongly condemn the increasing cases of harassment, vandalism, disinformation, defamation and incitement to hatred by far-right parties in all Member States, a phenomenon that threatens European politicians, activists, journalists and citizens every day.
“This has no place in Europe and we will never be silenced”, they wrote. “We will never allow for any citizen to be threatened in the exercise of their democratic rights”, they added.
“As European leaders, we will remain vigilant and will fight for a democratic, inclusive, free and equal society, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. These values are the foundation of the European project and principles that we will always defend”, they concluded.
Read the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/c5n (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)