Spain’s VOX says a big far-right alliance in EU parliament ‘very difficult’

3 months ago 16

An alliance between the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group or the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is “very difficult”, Jorge Buxadé, the leading candidate of the far-right VOX party, said on Wednesday.

In the framework of a series of conferences with the lead EU candidates organised by EFE in Madrid, Buxadé made it clear that any potential alliance with far-right parties in the European Parliament would exclude AfD.

However, he did not completely rule out cooperating with the other two groups on specific “patriotic dossiers,” such as migration.

VOX, the third largest force in the Spanish parliament, is polling in third place ahead of the EU elections, behind the main opposition Partido Popular (PP/EPP) and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D), which is second.

Fourth place would go to the left-wing platform Sumar, led by Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, the junior partner in the government led by Sánchez’s PSOE.

According to Buxadé, who is currently vice-president of the ECR, VOX is committed to creating a large alliance of all the “patriotic, conservative and identity-based” parties in the EU, echoing the slogan of former US president and current Republican candidate Donald Trump, but applied to Europe: “Europe first”.

In VOX’s view, “creating a large group (in the European Parliament) is very difficult” which is why, according to Buxadé, it is important to identify “five or six points” on which all ideologically related parties could be united.

While it may be difficult to achieve total unity of criteria among the “ultra” formations, it should be possible to reach an agreement on some key issues of the “patriotic agenda”, including the sovereignty of nations, which should be put before what VOX considers to be excessive bureaucracy in Brussels.

A ‘grand alliance’ of the far-right

In this sense, the unification of some of the EU’s “patriotic” parties was evident in the “Europa Viva 24” event organised by VOX in Madrid last week, in which Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the ECR and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban took part via videoconference.

Buxadé added that alliances between the different European “ultra” families could be forged on other issues as well, including possible treaty reform, the fight against irregular immigration, energy policy, and the repeal of the Green Deal.

“If we make a great alliance on these five points, the European Parliament will change, and if the European Parliament changes, the European Commission changes; and if the Parliament changes and the Commission changes, the Spanish people will be happier,” Buxadé stressed.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)