EPP boss Manfred Weber is bothered by AfD’s right turn as parliamentary calculus draws conservatives and more moderate populists together in the European Parliament.
FROM THE SUMMER 2023 PRINT EDITION: In Europe, populists were permanently marginalised—or so it was claimed by hostile observers. However, since pandemic policies ended, unresolved problems have returned to the forefront of political debate, giving a boost to right-wing populist parties everywhere.
“The EPP is the party of traitors” who almost always vote with the leftists, Rodrigo Ballester said, warning that conservative votes for the European center-right are “lost in translation.”
Closed-door negotiations between NATO and Ankara have irritated MEPs who rebuffed the likelihood of Turkish EU membership anytime soon in a report from the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee this week.
The socialists have “gone mad in their impotence and powerlessness due to losing elections,” Dominik Tarczyński said, explaining the European Parliament’s latest attempt to “undermine Polish democracy.”
The Act cleared Parliament with near-unanimous support, although many lament that the Chips Act is too little, too late and that Brussels should have no role in setting industrial policy for the entire union on such a vital issue.
While nothing is certain, it looks like the Nature Restoration Law will be defeated Wednesday as Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola aired EPP fears that climate legislation was triggering a wave of anti-green populism in Europe.
