‘Patriots for Europe’ bring risks for traditional conservatives: analyst

2 months ago 12

Many members of the new far-right “Patriots for Europe” group formed on Monday (8 July) aim to upset the existing Euro-Atlantic framework and represent conservative radicalism, posing risks for traditional conservatives present in various groups, analyst Federico Reho told Euractiv.

“I strongly doubt that the new group will really help promote conservative values in the EU”, Reho, a senior researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies think-tank, which is close to the centre-right EPP, said.

The analyst explained that many members of the new far-right group are “revolutionary forces bent on upending the existing European and Atlantic framework, though pockets of traditional conservatism are certainly present within some of them”.

“If conservative political and social values become stably identified with nationalist, Eurosceptic and anti-system forces, it will be even more difficult for traditional conservatives to represent and promote them within the EU framework”, he said.

For Reho, traditional conservatives present in various political groups should, therefore, coordinate more but also resist the “dangerous sirens of conservative radicalism”.

“From this perspective, the refusal of all ECR parties except Vox to join the new group is an interesting sign”, he noted.

No impact on political balances

When asked about the impact on the political balances within the EU House, the researcher stressed that the cordon sanitaire would apply, as it did for the far-right Identity and Democracy group.

However, given that the new EU Parliament is more fragmented, this may allow some room for “occasional manoeuvres” to the new group, with “experienced” Hungary’s Fidesz members and staffers playing a key role in this.

The EPP’s voting behaviour

Lorenzo Castellani, a political analyst and professor at LUISS Guido Carli University, agrees that the pro-EU majority can still move forward independently in the EU Parliament and the EU Council.

“Apart from Orbán and partly Wilders through the Dutch government, as it’s also represented by Renew, it doesn’t seem like they have significant representation”, he told Euractiv.

However, he believes that Orbán’s new group and partly Giorgia Meloni’s ECR may influence the right wing of the grand coalition, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP).

“They could potentially block certain measures, vote against them, and make negotiations with socialists and liberals more difficult”, Castellani said, mainly referring to environmental or migration policies.

[Sarantis Michalopoulos – Edited by Alice Taylor]