Strasbourg, 13/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Three French MEPs, Michel Dary (PRG), Michel Scarbonchi (PRG) and Sami Nair (MDC), have decided to quit the group of the Party of European Socialists (PES) to possibly join that of the Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD). All three joined the "Republican Pole" and backed Jean-Pierre Chevenement in the presidential elections in France. Dary and Scarbonchi were excluded from the "Parti des Radicaux de Gauche". This change to the group has as effect of further increasing the gap that separates the PES (now 176 members) from the EPP-ED (232 members). Should this scenario be confirmed, the EDD Group would have 21 members, having taken in the three MEPs
The French Socialist delegation within the PES (which now only has 19 members) published the following press release: "We note that they will join the ill-assorted group of Jean Saint-Josse, hunters and other anti-European Danes. We note with regret this conclusion of a national slide. More than ever, we believe, on the contrary, that the time is for the construction of a more social and more political Europe".