Spanish right’s top EU candidate silent on possible bloc alliance with far-right

6 months ago 32

Dolors Montserrat, the leading candidate in the European elections for the right-wing Partido Popular (EPP), refused to clarify during a live TV debate on Wednesday with her rival from the ruling Socialist Party, Teresa Ribera, whether the right-wing formation would make a pact with the far-right VOX party and other “ultra” forces in the European Parliament.

In a tense debate broadcast late on Wednesday night by the private channel La Sexta, Montserrat (PP/EPP) and Ribera (PSOE/S&D), who is also the ecological transition minister, clashed on several key points of the European agenda, including the European bloc’s foreign and agricultural policies, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

But the most politically intense moment came when Ribera asked Montserrat whether the PP, the main opposition force to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, would be willing to make a pact with VOX, the third largest force in the Spanish parliament and whether it would also make pacts with other far-right parties in the EU.

Montserrat did not answer the question and only stressed that the PP is a “pro-EU and reformist party that governs from the centre”.

“We are going to put the PP programme on the table,” she said. The Spanish right-wing party is the favourite to win the European elections in Spain on 9 June, fresh polls revealed.

EPP’s ‘surrender’ to the far-right

A central part of the debate was devoted to possible pacts between the EU’s right-wing camp and “ultra” political formations, which sit in two different groups in the European Parliament – the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni which also includes VOX, and the more “hawkish” Identity and Democracy (ID), which includes Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, Italy’s Lega.

In this sense, Ribera sent out a clear message: “The important thing is to know if the right is going to continue surrendering to the far right”.

In almost two-hour debates, the two candidates clashed over sensitive EU issues, including the Common Agricultural Policy, European foreign policy, and Madrid’s announcement that it will join Ireland and Norway in recognising the Palestinian state on 28 May.

Montserrat claimed that thanks to the PP, Spain has benefited from EU funds and criticised Sánchez’s government, under which “people are not making ends meet” because of high prices and low salaries. Ribera highlighted the positive economic development and advocated “exporting the Spanish model to the rest of Europe.”

“(The European elections) are not a referendum for Pedro Sánchez; they are a referendum on Europe. Do we want more Europe, or are we going to look back?” Ribera asked.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)