EU left camp accused of double standards in rule of law

9 months ago 31

The centre-right and conservative groups in the EU House have accused the Greens, Socialists and the Left groups of double standards – comparing Spain to Hungary and Poland – for not condemning Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s controversial deals with separatist parties, which, they say, are an attack on the rule of law.

The EU Parliament debated the rule of law in Spain on Wednesday, following the request of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), liberal Renew Europe and right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). On the other side, the debate was opposed by the Greens/EFA, the socialists (S&D), and The Left group.

“The socialists and the left lost all credibility to defend the rule of law on the European level with such a behaviour”, centre-right EPP President Manfred Weber said.

“The left is silent in this House, but Europe is not”, he added.

The debate was meant to discuss Sánchez’s recent deals with Catalan and Basque separatist parties, which included an amnesty law and the possibility of creating parliamentary committees to inquire about the use of “lawfare” by judges.

After comparing Sánchez to Polish PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski’, Weber also celebrated that Portugal’s PSD (EPP) “will defeat” the “corrupt” socialist government during the upcoming election in March following a high-level corruption scandal affecting Prime Minister António Costa, polls show.

“Mister Weber, there is no greater attack on the rule of law than your alliance with the extreme right”, socialist group (S&D) President Iratxe García replied, adding that “as long as you give your blessing to the extreme right to be able to govern, then you are attacking the judiciary, the press, women, and LGBTI people”.

S&D says the amnesty law aligns with the Spanish constitution, EU treaties, and jurisprudence from the EU Court of Justice and ECHR. Socialist MEPs also flagged that amnesties are present in several member states’ constitutions and have been repeatedly used in the last decades.

Several MEPs -from EPP, ECR, or Renew – drew comparisons between Spain, Hungary and Poland, went on to accuse the left-wing groups, especially the socialists, of double standards for not condemning Sánchez’s move, but instead defending disciplinary measures against Warsaw and Budapest.

“I’m turning to you, socialist members of Parliament, comrades in this Parliament with whom we have defended the rule of law in Poland and elsewhere. What’s happened, what’s different, what’s changed? How come we can’t defend what we were defending 12 weeks ago and raise our voices?” Ciudadanos MEP Adrián Vazquez (Renew) said.

On the same day that the Commission confirmed Hungary’s EU funds would remain frozen over the rule of law concerns, Orbán’s party Fidesz MEP Enikő Györi also took the chance to accuse the socialists, just like the Commission, of being “masters in the selective application of the rule of law and double standards in the case of Hungary”.

Following an exchange of letters between the Commission and the Spanish government, Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders affirmed during the debate the Commission is doing an “analysis very carefully, independently and objectively” to determine the amnesty law’s compliance with EU law while also emphasising that Catalonia is Spain’s “internal matter”.

“The debate and analysis of the amnesty law must take place in Spain, within the Spanish constitutional framework, and must begin in the Spanish Parliament,” he said, watering down EPP’s hopes for a swift intervention from the EU Commission against Sánchez’s government.

(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)