Green lead candidate hits back at EPP attempts to exclude her group from Commission majority

5 months ago 25

European People’s Party (EPP) members’ attempts to exclude the Greens from the post-election coalition majority will backfire in post-election negotiations, Green lead candidate Terry Reintke told Euractiv after EPP members doubted the Greens’ suitability as a partner.

The centre-right EPP is projected to remain in charge of the European Commission after the EU elections, but it needs to team up with other European Parliament groups for its candidate for the presidency to pass the investiture vote.

While eyeing a coalition with the social democratic and liberal groups, the EPP might need to back up their majority, given possible defections, with either the hard-right ECR or the Greens.

“The EPP would do well not to start a debate about coalition suitability now – it will backfire,” Reintke said, warning that excluding the Greens would hand additional leverage to ECR collaborators in negotiations with the EPP.

Moreover, other centrist groups refuse to join a majority with ECR hard-right parties, such as the Fratelli d’Italia, whose potential inclusion has recently stirred controversy.

However, the Greens’ offer to join the Commission’s majority in exchange for policy concessions has been received coolly by the EPP.

Daniel Caspary, leader of the EPP’s largest delegation, the German CDU, claimed that the Greens proved unreliable when voting against the EU’s migration reform.

“The Greens should not be part of [the Commission majority] because they are very dogmatic and ideological in the European Parliament,” Jens Spahn, a leading national CDU lawmaker, told Euractiv.

Commission President and EPP lead candidate Ursula von der Leyen also appeared to doubt the Greens’ suitability.

“We will see how the Greens behave after the elections”, she told WDR on Monday when asked about her coalition options, noting that the Greens voted against parts of the Green deal “because they wanted more.”

Von der Leyen “must tell voters where she stands”

Reintke countered: “If you look at the votes in the European Parliament, you can see that we are part of the pro-European and pro-democratic majority – especially regarding the Green Deal.”

She admitted that the Greens have “voted in nuanced ways, here and there.” But that is no different from other groups, she said. Notably, the EPP and the S&D were split in the migration vote.

Reintke stands by her offer to work with the EPP while stressing that ECR group members must not be involved: “We should sit down after the election and build a commission majority of the democratic centre together.”

About potential collaborations with the hard-right, “Ursula von der Leyen and her EPP must finally decide what they want,” she added. “I demand that she tells the voters where they stand before the election.”

[Edited by Aurélie Pugnet/Alice Taylor]