Centrist Renew Europe rejects any alliance with centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) if the latter closes ranks with “the right and extreme-right”, Renew Europe MEP and European Democratic Party Secretary-General Sandro Gozi told EURACTIV Italy in an interview.
Instead, he stressed that EU liberals would welcome building a majority with EPP, socialists (S&D), the Greens “and even a part of” the EU Left after the 2024 EU elections to avoid a polarised EU Parliament into “extremes”.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani has been advocating to continue the dialogue between the centre-right EPP and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the hopes of forming a solid majority to govern the EU after the 2024 European Elections.
“For example, in 2017, it was a majority composed of Populars (EPP), Conservatives (ECR), and Liberals that determined my election as president of the European Parliament,” Tajani recently told EURACTIV Italy.
For his side, Gozi made it very clear that Renew Europe will not support a right-wing majority due to a lack of alignment with the group’s values and goals.
‘Loud and clear no’
“Our spokesperson is not Tajani, our leader is not Giorgia Meloni or Manfred Weber. Our leader is Emmanuel Macron, and we say no, loud and clear, to the prospect of an alliance with the right and the extreme right”, Gozi stressed, adding that a suitable and far-right alliance is “incompatible with the nature of the European Union”.
“We have nothing to do with Fratelli d’Italia [ECR], with those who talk about ethnic replacement, with those who believe that the veto is the best way to guarantee national sovereignty”, he slammed.
Instead, Gozi hopes the EPP will look at Renew Europe, S&D, “a part of” the EU Left, and the Greens – who he hopes “this time will want to be a structural part of this alliance” – to form a governing majority after the 2024 EU elections, avoiding the polarisation of the Parliament into extremes.
Renew Europe was “not born to reproduce at the European level a bipolarism that in France has collapsed and in Italy is tottering and becoming extreme. We were born to overcome the traditional right and left lines that today become extreme right and fragmented left,” he said.
A complex puzzle
Confirming Tajanis’ ideas, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS/ECR) affirmed that EPP and ECR are gradually converging to avoid a socialist left-wing majority at the European Parliament.
From his side, EPP chief Manfred Weber said that the cooperation of EPP and ECR-affiliated parties in the Czech Republic could be a role model for collaboration at the EU level.
Weber has openly backed building bridges with ECR nationally and essentially sees in positive light replicating the Italian governing model in Spain, too, with a coalition between centre-right Partido Popular (EPP) and Vox (ECR).
Spain will hold snap elections on 23 July, and critics suggest that its result will play a key role in determining the future orientation of the EPP.
Weber’s “openness” toward ECR has frustrated the EU socialists, who have said any traditional collaboration with the EU centre-right has become “impossible” as the “pro-EU red line” has been crossed.
Read more: EU socialist chief: Cooperation with the EPP no longer possible
Meanwhile, EU lawmaker and Vice-Chairman of the ECR Group at the European Parliament, Rob Roos, told EURACTIV Italy that a coalition between the EPP, ECR and liberals is possible.
“There is indeed a possibility to achieve this. In Europe, people are starting to vote more Conservatives, and the ECR will grow in the next term, perhaps becoming the third-largest party. Naturally, you have to make concessions when you want to form a coalition. I think we are willing to do it,” he said.
An element that could potentially bring ECR and EPP closer is the recent push to abandon essential parts of the European Green Deal, which was pushed forward by European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans and the progressive political groups in the EU House.
According to Roos, Europe should push for climate policies that improve people’s lives and not impose all kinds of regulations on them, making their life more expensive.
“Obviously, we have to take care of our planet, but we can also do it in a very realistic and practical way. Not in a way where Brussels gains more power and citizens lose more money,” he said.
The EPP’s last-minute “revolution” against the EU Green Deal is also seen by several analysts as opposing Ursula von der Leyen, who has been a backer of this strategy, re-running for the EU Commission presidency.
Critics suggest that Weber is eyeing the EU Commission’s top job, although he has not publicly admitted it. The “flirt” with ECR, the same critics suggest, is part of this strategy to gather as much support among EU leaders as possible for Weber to get the job.
A potential obstacle for am ECR-EPP collaboration is also related to foreign policy matters.
While the EPP officially backs moving from unanimous to majority decision-making on foreign affairs issues, the ECR insists on national vetoes.
“For me, the national veto is a sacred thing,” Roos told EURACTIV Italy.
Another possible obstacle for Weber could also be the opposition of centre-right parties in Germany to form a coalition with Meloni’s ECR.
Last but not least, sources familiar with the matter suggest that French President Emmanuel Macron as well as Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán – who both opposed Weber getting the EU Commission top job in the 2019 EU elections – will still be leaders of their countries and highly likely will repeat their opposition.
(Roberto Castaldi | EURACTIV Italy – Edited by Max Griera, Sarantis Michalopoulos | EURACTIV.com)
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