Greens warn EPP, liberals mimicking far-right will ‘backfire’

Amidst major far-right gains across the EU, liberal and conservative parties must stop “running after far-right narratives” to win voters as it will backfire because “at the end, people vote for the original,” co-president of the Greens Terry Reintke told Euractiv while laying out her vision for the future of EU policymaking.

All “pro-European democratic groups” need to stick together and enforce a “cordon-sanitaire” on the European Parliament’s right-wing and far-right forces, Reintke said.

According to the latest Europe Elects projection for Euractiv, the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group would become the fourth political force in the European Parliament with 87 seats, followed by the national-conservative European Conservatives and Reformist groups (ECR) with 82 –  a quarter of the 720 seas.

“These people are not only anti-European, they are also anti-democratic, they are racist, they’re fascist forces, and we are not going to cooperate with them in any way,” she told Euractiv in an exclusive interview during the European Green Party 38th congress on Saturday.

The Greens will pressure socialists (S&D), liberals (Renew), and centre-right (EPP) other groups not to drop the traditional pro-European majority.

“We are going in the campaign to remind the conservatives and the liberals again and again how dangerous a far-right, not only a bigger group, but a far-right bigger group that is going to be part of power-sharing, will be,” she said.

At a meeting of EU far-right parties in Florence, Italian far-right League leader Matteo Salvini (ID) called on the EPP to collaborate with other right-wing forces to “liberate Brussels.”

Such a move, though, has been rejected by EPP Secretary General Thanasis Bakolas, welcoming further collaboration with the socialists, liberals, and greens instead.

As for the liberals, Renew Europe President Stéphane Séjourné clearly rejected a rapprochement with the right-wing forces in September, accusing the EPP of “illiberal temptations.”

But some of Renew’s party members appear to be flirting with the far-right, as is the case for ANO in Czechia and VVD in the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, liberal party VVD has indeed shown openness to support a coalition led by the far-right PVV and its leader Geert Wilders, which, due to its major win in November’s Dutch elections that earned them 37 of 150 seats, has become the centrepiece of the future government.

Drawing “a lesson” from the Dutch campaign, Reintke stressed that all “democratic groups” must dialogue on contentious and “uncomfortable” issues instead of “running after the very dangerous narratives of the far right.”

“Democrats have to keep in mind if we run an election campaign trying to run after the narratives of the far-right (…) we are always going to lose because also the centre-right groups, even if they are trying to mimic the far-right, at the end of the day, the people vote for the original,” she said.

Laying out the next Commission’s work programme

Reintke spoke to Euractiv during the European Green Party congress, where she presented her nomination as the Greens’ lead candidate for the EU elections on June 6-9, 2024.

Asked what the next European Commission should focus on during the 2024-29 term, she stressed the need to upscale EU investments via funding programmes such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

“Coming from Germany, having to type debt rules that will mean massive austerity in the next years is the exact opposite of what Europe needs, and I don’t say that as a green. I say that as somebody who wants the European economy to be competitive in the future,” she said.

She also defended the extension of the European Green Deal, saying that “we still have very important regulation that needs to happen,” in contrast to the growing calls for a focus on implementation.

Thirdly, she proposes to continue working towards a “social Europe,” building on the minimum wage directive. As a concrete step, Reintke proposes to step up workplace protection to account for climate change: “We see climate change hitting in construction. Workers are very often working in completely impossible working conditions.”

As a last point, she wants “a big and much more determined way of defending democracy and rule of law” since the Commission “has always been too late over the past years,” she said.

(Max Griera | Euractiv.com)

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