Leftist parties in Brussels are terrified that their undemocratic cordon sanitaire against the Right will eventually collapse if the CDU-led EPP follows the lead of the German party at the European Union level. This follows the first-ever German parliamentary vote on migration, passed in cooperation between the centrist establishment Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the national conservative AfD, with the support of the majority of Germans.
The Left’s fears are also augmented by center-right parties having no choice but to enter into coalitions with conservatives across the bloc, such as in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. Although the process has only just begun, Europe’s political firewalls are slowly breaking down, thanks to voters turning toward the Right in critical numbers. In response, the Left is increasingly afraid of losing its grip on its narrative that conservatives are nothing but “far-right extremists” who deserve only isolation.
The biggest concern in Brussels now is the Green Deal, as the establishment leftist parties are afraid of the European People’s Party (EPP) granting the Right the slightest concessions on climate targets under the new Competitiveness Compass. Not that there’s much willingness at the moment: the conservatives (Patriots for Europe; PfE, European Conservatives and Reformists; ECR, and Europe of Sovereign Nations; ESN) have all united in their call to suspend and reevaluate the EU’s climate policies—following revelations they were possibly unlawfully adopted—but the EPP categorically refused to lend its support.
Ensuring that the EPP’s loyalty lies with the Left
A last-minute debate was added to Wednesday’s plenary agenda by the German socialists (SPD), titled “Collaboration between conservatives and far right as a threat for competitiveness in the EU.” The competitiveness angle was largely just a strawman, of course, needed to keep the debate topical as it was the main issue discussed in the European Parliament (EP) that day. But it was clearly intended to serve as a vehicle to shame the EPP back into its traditional alliance with the Left, whatever the subject.
The strategy worked—at least judging by the reaction of the EPP’s German keynote speaker, Daniel Caspary (CDU) who rushed to denounce all future cooperation with the AfD or other conservative parties in Brussels before the debate would even fully begin.The centrist MEP quickly reassured his leftist colleagues that the CDU would neither work together nor enter any coalition “whatsoever” with the “far right” AfD.
“You speak about the firewall, we want to extinguish the fire behind the wall,” Caspary said, explaining that the whole point of the center-right slightly changing course on migration and climate is to prevent the further rise of “extremists” and avoid this EP becoming “the last in which democratic forces have a majority.”
Enabling the rise of the “far-right”
However, this didn’t stop the leftists from berating the EPP for any real or supposed intention of allowing right-wingers to have a say in European politics.
“Far-right parties don’t come to power alone,” said the German socialist (S&D) Katarina Barley, before namechecking CDU leader Friedrich Merz for failing to remember the lessons of the country’s Nazi past. “We in Germany should know better.”
French MEP Sandro Gozi from the liberal Renew warned the EPP of alienating its leftist coalition allies if it continues to walk down “the path of the extreme.”
“We voted in the von der Leyen commission together, the Renew, the socialists [S&D], and the EPP,” Gozi declared:
We shouldn’t have variable geometry majorities or convergence with the far-right, as this opportunism from the EPP colleagues is poisoning the EU.
As always, the Greens were even more brusque slandering conservatives and their supposed new friends in the center. Finnish MEP Maria Ohisalo, for instance, accused the “far right” of endless racism and homophobia, as well as of performing “Nazi salutes” and engaging in “bizarre culture wars every day” in the name of free speech, while the center-right “is enabling it all over Europe.”
Austria’s Thomas Waitz, also from the Greens, said what he sees today reminds him of “the darkest times of the last century.” He pointed at Christian Democrat parties such as the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), allowing the “extreme right” to take power—conveniently omitting the fact that the conservative Freedom Party (FPÖ) won last year’s election with a large margin.
Waltz even declared that the FPÖ’s demand of restoring the primacy of national laws and justice over EU laws equals “destroying the EU through the backdoor” and questioning “the main values” it is built on. Members of the EPP are “complicit,” and this is “extremely dangerous” for our democracy—a phrase our readers might be familiar with.
1300 laws and zero reason: the real threats to EU competitiveness
Conservative groups are used to being called all sorts of things in the EP so they weren’t exactly touched by the debate.
PfE whip Anders Vistisen quipped:
Isn’t it marvelous that the same parties who built Europe’s economic future based on politics from communists and extreme green parties now blame the Right for the lack of competitiveness in the EU?
The Danish MEP said the Left’s argument is not only hypocritical but also profoundly incorrect, as national conservatives had always been excluded from the decision-making through the cordon sanitaire, including in this term, and that this was the real reason Europe’s economy is tanking and energy prices are higher than in the U.S.
“You implemented 1,300 [laws] since 2009, four times as many as the U.S.,” Vistisen added. “Maybe that is the reason you’re not able to compete. Maybe your ideological blindness and stupidity in the economy is why you can’t compete, not the Right that you never let in. But when we come to power, we will fix it, so take it easy.”
Czech MEP Klara Dostalova (PfE) struck a similar tone:
Let’s appreciate the irony of today’s discussion … Energy prices are skyrocketing but the biggest concern is the cooperation of conservative parties?
ECR Vice President Carlo Fidanza (FdI) was more annoyed by the Left “twisting words” by calling the center-right ‘conservatives’ and true conservatives ‘far-right.’ “It’s the same old game: labeling your political adversaries in order to discredit them and exclude them from the political debate,” he said. The real threats to the bloc’s competitiveness are those who built “a mountain of red tape” with disastrous climate policies on top, Fidanza added.
