New EU left group fails, Wagenknecht blames ‘majority groups’

Talks to form an alternative left group in the European Parliament failed, Germany’s Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) confirmed Wednesday 3 July, as its lead candidate Fabio de Masi blamed last-minute dropouts and the “powerful levers” of “majority groups”.

Founded this spring by MP Sahra Wagenknecht as a breakaway outfit from the German Die Linke, BSW told Euractiv ahead of June’s European Elections that it had enough support from other parties in the European Parliament, to form a new parliamentary group.

News emerged, however, earlier in the day that the Five Star Movement long rumoured to be involved in talks, applied instead to join the existing Left group in the European Parliament.

EU election lead candidate de Masi confirmed on Wednesday evening in a statement that BSW had “been working intensively with the Five Star Movement from Italy [in recent weeks] to create a new political group in the EU Parliament.”

“We have come very close to a new political formation, as 20 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from six countries have expressed their interest,” he said.

Despite, however, last-minute interest from members of The Left, the new group ultimately failed to meet the required threshold of having 23 MEPs from seven countries, de Masi admitted. Describing alleged dramatic events taking place on Tuesday evening.

He wrote: “On Tuesday evening (2 July), we received last-minute requests for talks from parties of The Left faction, who felt marginalised there with their focus on peacekeeping, diplomacy and social justice. They were appalled that their parliamentary group would continue to lead Die Linke despite the party’s election defeat.”

The Left group confirmed on Wednesday that Die Linke’s leader Martin Schirdewan would remain group chair. His party had been reduced from five MEPs to 3 in June’s EU election. The Left told Euractiv they would not comment.

De Masi told Euractiv that last-minute talks had finally broken down on Wednesday, however, as the interested delegations decided not to join.

Rather than policy differences, he identified negotiations on splitting competencies and responsibilities as a reason that the plans failed overall, as BSW and its allies had to look for new partners after pre-election seat projections were not reached.

In his statement, he claimed that Social Democrats were also involved in the talks, saying “the majority groups have powerful levers to involve critics of their backroom deals in Brussels via posts and finances.”

He also denied rumours that BSW had tried to join The Left, but were rejected.

The existing Left group may become the biggest group politically left of the Greens, as it numbers may swell to at least 47 MEPs if they accept Five Stars‘ 8 lawmakers.

The decision on the Five Stars’ application is due to be made tomorrow.

BSW’s failure to form a new group will leave its six MEPs among the non-affiliated delegation with little political influence.

De Masi said the group would seek “close cooperation or a shadow parliamentary group with interested democratic parties” to offer an alternative to the “‘keep-it-as-it-is’ parties around the European People’s Party, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Greens, who are all rallying around Ms. von der Leyen.”

He hoped “our work will lay the foundations for our own group in the EU parliament in the not too distant future.”

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]

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