The European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) group has announced admitting over a dozen new MEPs, reaching a total of 83 seats and therefore becoming the third largest group in the European Parliament. Half of the new members, however, come from a highly controversial nationalist party in Romania despite the group’s supposed commitment to building a “center-right” force that might even enter into coalition with von der Leyen’s EPP and the liberal Renew.
This second round of admission saw ECR accepting the membership of the Denmark Democrats, the Bulgarian ITN, and the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens with one MEP each, as well as the “readmission” of Marion Maréchal and her three French colleagues who were expelled from Éric Zemmour’s Reconquête last week and are now creating their own ‘French Conservative’ party.
However, ECR’s largest new delegation will be the Romanian AUR (Alliance for the Union of Romanians). Although AUR will only represent 5 out of ECR’s 83 seats, the Romanians will still have considerable influence as the 4th largest delegation in the group after the Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (24 seats), the Polish PiS (20), and the Spanish VOX (6).
AUR was founded in 2019 by George Simion, a former football ‘ultra’ who had been since banned from entering both Ukraine and Moldova because of his pro-Kremlin statements and alleged ties to Russian intelligence services. In fact, the party’s anti-Ukrainian rhetoric could hardly be overstated after an AUR senator submitted a draft law that aimed to annex five Ukrainian territories last year.
Therefore, admitting AUR in ECR is strange, to say the least, given the group’s frequently expressed commitment to helping Ukraine and combatting Russian influence in the EU. The main reason several ECR members have been reluctant to welcome the Hungarian ruling party, Fidesz, is because it is deemed not pro-Ukraine enough.
ECR still “sees itself as a constructive center-right force in the European Parliament,” the group’s statement announcing the new admission reads, unaware of the irony.
Moreover, AUR has amassed countless scandals back in Romania since it became a parliamentary force in 2020, including obstructing sessions and harassing other MPs, relativizing the Holocaust, and constantly stoking ethnic tensions with Romania’s ethnic Hungarian community. What’s more, the country’s prosecutor’s office is currently investigating Simion and his comrades for allegedly forging tens of thousands of signatures for an independent ally’s EU campaign.
While it’s true that AUR has begun moderating itself lately in anticipation of joining one of the conservative groups in Brussels, some commentators are skeptical and believe the party cannot shred its core identity.
For ECR, the move only serves one purpose: becoming the third largest bloc in the Parliament by overtaking Macron’s liberal Renew. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni hopes this would grant her and ECR more leverage in Brussels to gain powerful positions, as well as a chance to create her dream “center-right” majority by replacing the socialist S&D group as the centrist EPP and Renew’s third coalition partner.
Ironically, admitting AUR may turn out to be the very thing preventing Meloni from gaining the full acceptance of the mainstream center in the end.
