The far right is gaining momentum in Europe ahead of EU elections and is converging with the right, centre-right, and liberals on policies and politics ahead of EU elections, the co-president of The Left group at the European Parliament, Manon Aubry, told Euractiv in an interview.
Aubry is a French member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the left-wing party La France Insoumise, and one of the promoters of the initiative ‘Now the People’, a coalition of parties around the continent aiming to create a new left front in the European Parliament in the next mandate.
Now The People gathered in Copenhagen last week, where roughly 15 parties, including Podemos, Die Linke, Sinn Fein, New Left (Greece), and the Swedish Left party, participated.
“We have the far right that is making steady progress across the EU, we even see convergence between the liberals, the right wing and the far right. We see it in particular on environmental legislation, but also to push for racist and violent legislation such as the asylum and migration pact,” Aubry told Euractiv.
She argued that there is the need for a new ‘leftist generation’ as an alternative to having “the far right, the right wing, the liberals and a divided left”.
The MEP was referring to the recent behaviour of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), which has adopted a new approach in recent months towards environmental legislation.
The EPP, together with the liberals and the socialists, was pushing for the endorsement of the migration pact, a group of five regulations that the EU is about to approve. They will define EU rules at borders, heavily criticised by civil society organisations who said they lacked human rights protection for migrants.
“We need an alternative to what we have in front of us, which is the far right, the liberals and a divided left. We need to reunite the left, among very clear policies, to fight austerity, to fight free trade and to fight market based mechanisms and policies,” Aubry told Euractiv.
The new left coalition
‘Now the People’ is developing as the European Left Party is due to hold its congress this week.
To the question how ‘Now the People’ will differentiate from the European Left, Aubry said “we do not want to compete nor differentiate. Some parties of ‘Now the People’ are members of the European Left Party,” Aubry said.
“The objective is to collectively create a dynamic that goes beyond the borders of the European Left Party,” she explained, in order to include parties that are “currently not members of the left party nor yet have representation within the European Parliament,” the MEP told Euractiv.
Asked whether she will be leading the Left group in the next legislative term, Aubry replied that she will make herself available to “continue the experience”. However, “the group will be sovereign and will decide on its new leadership.”
European political parties are not the same thing as the political groups at the European Parliament. A group is not necessarily composed of the same national delegations that are part of a European political party.
For instance, the group Greens/EFA is composed of the European Greens and the European Free Alliance party (EFA) and there are also individual members who joined the group.
‘Now the People’ will publish ten programmatic points, a sort of a party manifesto, that will outline the main political issues the coalition intends to address.
“Reducing inequality by taxing the richest, breaking austerity rules that are destroying public services, guaranteeing access to housing, putting an end to fortress Europe,” are among topics that the ten points will talk about.
The other points, Aubry said, will include women rights, the fight for climate, and more in general, the fight against the “culture of opacity,” the MEP concluded.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
Source: euractiv.com
