Polish PiS MEP says ECR collaboration with EPP, ID possible

6 months ago 20

Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) has nothing against Hungary’s Fidesz joining the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), MEP Zdzisław Krasnodębski told Euractiv Poland, adding that he could imagine the ECR working with both the European People’s Party (EPP) and some parties in the Identity and Democracy (ID) group.

In February, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán announced that he would seek to join the ECR after the European elections in June. In 2021, the party left the EPP after being suspended over rule of law issues.

“As PiS, we are open to Fidesz joining the European Conservatives and Reformists,” Zdzisław Krasnodębski, former European Parliament deputy president, told Euractiv Poland.

The PiS party is a long-time ally of Hungary’s Fidesz, and the leaders of the two parties, Jarosław Kaczyński and Viktor Orbán, are good friends and often visit each other.

But there is one thing that has divided the two parties in recent years: a different approach to Russia.

But unlike the Czech ruling ODS, which has ruled out cooperation with Fidesz for this reason, Krasnodębski sees no obstacle to Orbán’s party joining the ECR.

Moreover, Krasnodębski believes that other, more centrist parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SPD), are much more sympathetic to Russia than Fidesz.

Potential coalitions

One key issue regarding the future composition of the European Parliament has been whether the ECR should team up with the EPP.

The ECR is open to cooperation with other groups and to forming a centre-right coalition, including with the EPP, said Krasnodębski.

In his view, the EPP currently includes parties that share more with the ECR’s political profile than with the views of EPP President Manfred Weber.

Citing his conversations with the EPP lawmakers, he said there were voices within the Christian Democrats that the current EU policies needed to change, and this would certainly be reflected in the new Parliament.

Many EPP MEPs admit, for example, that the current policy regarding the European Green Deal “was implemented too quickly and ill-considered, with insufficient attention to the interests of industry, agriculture or energy security,” the PiS lawmaker said.

Krasnodębski did not rule out cooperation with the socialists on certain issues, “especially the ones from our region, but also Western countries.”

However, he admitted, much will depend on the attitude of parties such as the EPP or the S&D.

“Today, their views are much more consistent with the ECR’s than they were before the pandemic and before the full-scale war in Ukraine when many members of these parties tended to be too optimistic about the situation in the world and the future of Europe.”

Partial ‘yes’ to Le Pen, no to AfD

“Under certain circumstances”, there could even be “a wide right-wing coalition with both the EPP and the ID group,” Krasnodębski added.

He cited the Italian case, in which Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (FdI, ECR) governs in coalition with Antonio Tajani’s Forza Italia (EPP) and Matteo Salvini’s Lega (ID).

The red lines, however, are a strongly pro-Kremlin stance and what Krasnodębski called the “reviving of totalitarian traditions in Europe.”

“We certainly can’t imagine collaboration with the German AfD, but I think we could consider some cooperation with Marine Le Pen, who has recently moved her party slightly to the centre,” he said.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)