ECR saved as PiS reaches compromise with Fratelli d’Italia: Polish media

2 months ago 9

Poland’s conservative PiS party has reached an agreement with Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) about the division of key posts within their EU political family, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported on Thursday (27 June).

PiS and FdI are the two largest national parties in the national-conservative ECR group, with 20 and 24 MEPs respectively.

With the addition of new members, ECR recently became the European Parliament’s third-largest group.

Projections suggest it will continue so, provided it does not lose any of the member parties, especially not as big as PiS.

However, until now, PiS remaining part of the ECR was by no means certain.

On Thursday (27 June), press reports suggested that the party was tempted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz to join a new group that would also include Czech ANO movement of ex-prime minister Andrej Babiš and Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).

The Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported that PiS achieved a compromise with FdI and divided among themselves the leading posts in the group, opening the way for reconciliation.

The group will be officially formed and the new elected president next Tuesday (3 July), one day before the deadline.

Wednesday’s talks about the composition of the group were first interrupted and postponed to a later hour and then cancelled due to a boycott by the Polish delegation, several sources told Euractiv.

PiS delegation attended the meeting on Wednesday (26 June), but the talks were impossible to be held due to the tensions between the national parties. In addition, PiS members were internally divided on who to appoint for leadership positions.

PiS demanded admitting Fidesz and Marine Le Pen’s French Rassemblement National to ECR, among other things.

Even though the meeting was not resumed, PiS has ultimately managed to come to terms with FdI, with Poland receiving one of two group’s vice-president posts and keeping some other posts it has already had, including the group’s secretary-general.

Hungarian Fidesz’s accession is not a topic now, but sources say it may be again brought upon in the future.

Contacted by Euractiv Poland, PiS neither confirmed nor denied PAP’s reports.

Meanwhile, the Italian delegation told PAP it believed PiS demands were from the very beginning not that much about the enlargement of the group, but merely an attempt to reinforce Poland’s position in the group, encouraged by the European Council’s omission of Meloni while negotiating the EU top jobs.

“The Polish delegation decided that it could gain something from Meloni’s defeat. It is a dance on her grave,” one Italian MEP told PAP.

Confederation’s future

If confirmed, the consensus between PiS and FdI means that even if Viktor Orbán plans to establish a new group in the EU Parliament, it is unlikely to include PiS, Orbán’s longtime ally.

Without 20 PiS MEPs, the chances of gaining a sufficient number of lawmakers would significantly fall.

PiS remaining in ECR and no enlargement of the group might also close the doors for the far-right Polish Confederation party, which has only joined the European Parliament and is now seeking its place in the party spectrum.

Confederation new MEP Anna Bryłka told Euractiv Poland last week that she doubted a formation of any new group in the Parliament, and that her party will probably join either ECR or the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group.

Asked if she imagines membership in one group together with PiS, of which the Conversation is a fierce critic at home, she did not rule out any scenario.

[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos / Aurélie Pugnet]

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)