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EUROPE: The Right Makes an Unsettling Advance
Analysis by Cillian Donnelly
BRUSSELS, Jun 8 (IPS) - The political centre-right has vowed it will be "business as usual" following this
weekend's elections to the European Parliament in which they retained majority,
despite significant threats from the far right.
With most of the ballots analysed, the centre-right group in the European
parliament, as the European People's Party (EPP), look set to gain 263 seats
compared to their nearest rivals, the Socialists, who look set to return 163
members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
But despite this centrist core, these elections have been characterised by a
fracturing of the traditional vote, with more votes going to smaller parties,
mostly on the right of the political spectrum. This has caused much concern
in the corridors of parliament.
The upshot of this appears to be that the main, longstanding political groups
in the parliament, the EPP, the Socialists and the Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats (ALDE), will embark on a renewed platform of cooperation born
out of self-preservation. They are expected to agree tactics designed at
marginalising the new far right MEPs, whose politics is abhorrent to them.
"One of the key signals for this new parliament," says Wilfried Martens,
president of the EPP group, "is that it will be the first time we see these kind
of extremists, populists and eurosceptics. And the big lesson for the political
groups, those that built Europe, the EPP, liberals and Socialists, those
stretching back over the years, is that they now have an imperative, critical
task."
That "critical task", according to Martens, is to preserve the "stable political
force", and "shoulder the responsibility" of European politics. "Those groups,"
he said, "have to get together and apply new reforms to Europe."
But many around parliament are not convinced that the emergence of these
"extremists, populists and eurosceptics" can be so easily dismissed; and
some are openly opposed to what they see as unnecessary emphasis on
consensus at all costs. They say that important issues brought up during the
campaign cannot simply be whitewashed over.
One of the reasons the so-called mainstream political groups may be on the
defensive is that there now exists the very real possibility of a new right-
wing political group being formed in the next few weeks, which will certainly
gain publicity and could upset any status quo that the biggest groups may
wish to preserve.
For the right, the elections were mixed. The far right parties based on
extreme xenophobia and fascist leanings did not do as well as expected,
despite some notable gains; in Hungary Jobbik (Better Hungary, whose
members dress in distinctly Nazi-style uniforms) won three seats, while in
Finland, Perussoumalaiset (True Finns) gained their first MEP.
Elsewhere, the Austrian Freedom Party, members of the short-lived
Independence and Democracy group (ITS) in the last Parliament, gained a
significant proportion of votes, as did the British Nationalist Party (BNP), who
gained their first two seats.
In contrast, however, the far right in Belgium, Italy and especially France
suffered a significant drop in support.
Not that this was the extent of right-wing voting over the weekend. Several
parties that are billed as "anti-immigration" but would reject the far right tag
also made gains.
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' Freedom Party has taken four seats, while
in Denmark the Danish People's Party are up one, as are the Greek Popular
Orthodox Rally (LAOS). In the UK, the eurosceptic United Kingdom
Independence Party (UKIP), who made immigration one of their policy
platforms, beat the ruling Labour Party into second place in the polls behind
the main Conservative opposition.
The somewhat reduced expectations of the far right appear to have put a
dampener on the chances of such a political alliance in the parliament
emerging soon. But there remain strong indications that the creation of a
right-wing, anti-immigration group is on the cards, prompted by the
electoral success of the Freedom Party under leader Geert Wilders.
While Wilders himself will not be coming to Brussels as an MEP (he elected to
place himself far down the party list), he retains a lot of behind-the-scenes
pull within right-wing circles.
His first port of call may be the renewed UKIP, which in the past has
maintained close links with the Dutch party. And despite Wilders being
banned from entering the UK, staff members have privately admitted they
have "no problem" with sitting in a group together. Should this alliance come
to fruition, the Danes are likely to follow.
What is clear is that a large number of MEPs have this time campaigned
actively on the immigration issue, and it is unlikely they will let it die out
easily.
A parliament staff member working with the much-reduced Socialist group
tried to put on a brave face against such a possibility. "We will see 24 hours
of celebrations and anxiety," he told IPS. "But then it will be business as
usual. In reality, those that have always been in charge will be back in the
driver's seat." Consensus-builders throughout the parliament are hoping this
comes true. (END/2009)
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