While newsrooms across Europe, including ours, scramble to report on the fallout between right-wing parties and analyze what the shake-ups in political groupings might mean for the next European Parliament, we should not forget that the Right has an historic opportunity to make an impact in the larger battle for Europe. It should not be wasted on internal power-struggles and infighting.
Ordinary Europeans do not care about comings and goings in Brussels-based political groupings. “Will they stay in ECR? Will there be a split in ID? Will there be a new faction?” While we will certainly report on these questions, the truth is that nobody in the real world really votes on the basis of whether their party of choice is in the European Conservatives & Reformists (ECR) or in Identity & Democracy (ID). We must be careful not to get so drawn into parliamentary machinations that we lose sight of the big picture.
Millions of European voters are naturally conservative—and growing more and more impatient about the status quo. In February, when beleaguered farmers were protesting in Brussels, one banner captured the underlying sentiment, not just of farmers, but of the millions of other Europeans who backed them. It read: “This is not the Europe we want.”
The victories of populist and national conservative parties in elections across Europe say this very clearly: “This is not the Europe we want.” These same parties are predicted to do well in June’s elections to the European Parliament—unless they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The momentum of parties on the Right should not be wasted on internecine warfare. The important thing is to stick to the principles of European conservatism, whatever the parties or alliances. These are some we think are the most important:
National Sovereignty and Democracy
Ordinary citizens have had enough of Eurocrats pushing an ‘ever-closer Union’ run from Brussels. Many people think the EU’s political blackmail—in the form of, for example, ‘rule-of-law’ sanctions against conservative member states—is wrong. Similarly, Europeans also think it’s unfair for larger states to bully smaller ones and know that a member state’s right to veto decisions in the European Council—now threatened by proposed treaty changes—is their only protection against this. Any party worth supporting in June must fight for national sovereignty and democracy.
Security and Migration
Cities and towns across Europe have become unrecognizable and unlivable due to migration and crime. Citizens are furious about growing insecurity and are tired of being called xenophobes and racists simply for noticing the obvious. They are being sacrificed on the altar of a distorted understanding of multiculturalism, openness, and tolerance. Any party worth supporting in June recognises that the EU’s ‘compulsory solidarity’ is an oxymoron and believes that individual nations should be able to decide what—and how many—people should be allowed to move there.
The Green Disaster
People are fed up with being told that the only way to ‘save the environment’ is to freeze all winter, swelter all summer, abandon the farmers, stop traveling, and convert to the cult of ‘Net Zero.’ Any party worth supporting in June must be willing to fight against the Green Deal and for the European farmers who feed us.
‘European Values’
Ordinary Europeans are tired of being lectured about ‘European values.’ Who decided what they are? Voters sense that preaching about ‘European values’ is just code for Eurocrats telling them what to think and shaming them if they don’t agree. Any party worth supporting in June upholds real values like free speech and human dignity, and stands firmly against cancel culture and ‘wokeness’—and the fiction that men can declare themselves women.
As we said in our first editorial of 2024:
Many individuals running for European Parliament—those vying to be your MEPs—are vulgar opportunists who view the average citizens with disdain. They look down on all of us from positions of privilege. Unfortunately, many of these power-hungry grifters will end up in the hallways of power—in Brussels, Strasbourg, and elsewhere. They will rise from the ruling class in their respective countries and they will, once elected, amass even more power—if you let them.
The European Right should take care not to score an ‘own goal’ as they squabble over political territory. The nationalist, sovereigntist parties must not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the June elections or beyond. We should unite the Right—and not let the corrupt, entrenched, self-serving elites in Brussels win.
To the European Right: Don’t Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
While newsrooms across Europe, including ours, scramble to report on the fallout between right-wing parties and analyze what the shake-ups in political groupings might mean for the next European Parliament, we should not forget that the Right has an historic opportunity to make an impact in the larger battle for Europe. It should not be wasted on internal power-struggles and infighting.
Ordinary Europeans do not care about comings and goings in Brussels-based political groupings. “Will they stay in ECR? Will there be a split in ID? Will there be a new faction?” While we will certainly report on these questions, the truth is that nobody in the real world really votes on the basis of whether their party of choice is in the European Conservatives & Reformists (ECR) or in Identity & Democracy (ID). We must be careful not to get so drawn into parliamentary machinations that we lose sight of the big picture.
Millions of European voters are naturally conservative—and growing more and more impatient about the status quo. In February, when beleaguered farmers were protesting in Brussels, one banner captured the underlying sentiment, not just of farmers, but of the millions of other Europeans who backed them. It read: “This is not the Europe we want.”
The victories of populist and national conservative parties in elections across Europe say this very clearly: “This is not the Europe we want.” These same parties are predicted to do well in June’s elections to the European Parliament—unless they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The momentum of parties on the Right should not be wasted on internecine warfare. The important thing is to stick to the principles of European conservatism, whatever the parties or alliances. These are some we think are the most important:
National Sovereignty and Democracy
Ordinary citizens have had enough of Eurocrats pushing an ‘ever-closer Union’ run from Brussels. Many people think the EU’s political blackmail—in the form of, for example, ‘rule-of-law’ sanctions against conservative member states—is wrong. Similarly, Europeans also think it’s unfair for larger states to bully smaller ones and know that a member state’s right to veto decisions in the European Council—now threatened by proposed treaty changes—is their only protection against this. Any party worth supporting in June must fight for national sovereignty and democracy.
Security and Migration
Cities and towns across Europe have become unrecognizable and unlivable due to migration and crime. Citizens are furious about growing insecurity and are tired of being called xenophobes and racists simply for noticing the obvious. They are being sacrificed on the altar of a distorted understanding of multiculturalism, openness, and tolerance. Any party worth supporting in June recognises that the EU’s ‘compulsory solidarity’ is an oxymoron and believes that individual nations should be able to decide what—and how many—people should be allowed to move there.
The Green Disaster
People are fed up with being told that the only way to ‘save the environment’ is to freeze all winter, swelter all summer, abandon the farmers, stop traveling, and convert to the cult of ‘Net Zero.’ Any party worth supporting in June must be willing to fight against the Green Deal and for the European farmers who feed us.
‘European Values’
Ordinary Europeans are tired of being lectured about ‘European values.’ Who decided what they are? Voters sense that preaching about ‘European values’ is just code for Eurocrats telling them what to think and shaming them if they don’t agree. Any party worth supporting in June upholds real values like free speech and human dignity, and stands firmly against cancel culture and ‘wokeness’—and the fiction that men can declare themselves women.
As we said in our first editorial of 2024:
The European Right should take care not to score an ‘own goal’ as they squabble over political territory. The nationalist, sovereigntist parties must not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the June elections or beyond. We should unite the Right—and not let the corrupt, entrenched, self-serving elites in Brussels win.
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