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European elections 2024
European elections
EU Commission President von der Leyen has long been criticized because she can imagine cooperation with right-wing conservatives in the EU Parliament. In an interview, she now defends her position – and names three criteria.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen believes that cooperation with MEPs from right-wing parties is possible under certain conditions.
“The criterion for me is that the MPs with whom we want to work, to whom we make an offer, are for Europe, for Ukraine, i.e. against Russia, and for the rule of law,” she said in the “Interview of the Week” on Deutschlandfunk. It is about winning over political forces that are important for the majority in the center.
Already cooperation on the Green Deal
Since there is no party discipline in the EU Parliament, majorities must always be sought for every issue. This is one of the reasons why she says, “we don’t have to look at the groups, but at the members of parliament.”
As an example, she cited the vote for the climate laws, which many Greens felt did not go far enough. This is why many Green MPs did not vote for the Commission proposal.
The Green group in the EU Parliament criticized the fact that the conservative group of the European People’s Party (EPP) cooperated with right-wing parties on the Green Deal, the EU’s major climate policy project. According to a study reported by Der Spiegel, there was a right-wing majority in the plenary in 340 votes on the Green Deal.
Approaching Meloni
Von der Leyen is running as the EPP’s top candidate for a second term as Commission President in the European elections in early June. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, she spoke of a choice of direction. It is about developing Europe further or dividing and disintegrating it, as the right-wing populists want.
She has long been criticized by other parties because she has not ruled out cooperation with the right-wing conservative ECR group in the European Parliament after the election. Social Democrats, leftists and Greens have accused her of moving closer to the post-fascists in Italy. The Fratelli d’Italia party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is part of the ECR group. Von der Leyen recently described Meloni as “clearly pro-European”.
On Thursday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz indirectly warned the Commission President against trying to secure another term in office after the European elections with the help of right-wing extremists. Scholz said at a press conference that he was “very depressed about the ambiguity of some of the political statements we have recently heard.”
Turbulence in the ID faction
Most recently, the ID group of the far-right parties in the EU Parliament caused a stir by excluding all members of the AfD. The background to this was incidents involving the AfD’s top candidate, Maximilian Krah, who is accused not only of making controversial statements about the SS in an Italian newspaper.
He and the deputy lead candidate for the European elections, Petr Bystron, are also accused of having close contacts with Russia and China respectively.