The firewall is crumbling
The ultra-right ECR group in the European Parliament has claimed three seats on the Bureau – thanks to votes from the “centre-right” EPP group. Under the auspices of von der Leyen, the ECR is now to be treated as a “partner for legislation”.
BRUSSELS/BERLIN (own report) - The European People's Party (EPP), led by a CSU politician, has redefined its “cordon sanitaire” against the radical right. This “firewall” has been shifted way further right in the wake of the recent elections to the European Parliament. Parties of the extreme right are, for the first time, to be regarded as “cooperation partners”. On Wednesday, three parliamentarians from the ultra-right ECR Group (European Conservatives and Reformists) were elected with votes from EPP MEPs to the Bureau of the European Parliament, a body with important budgetary and administrative powers. The ECR Group includes far-right parties with origins in neo-fascism such as the Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) and the Sweden Democrats. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), who had just suffered a major defeat in court over her handling of vaccine contracts, managed to secure her re-election yesterday thanks in part to a deal with the FdI before the vote. In the freshly elected European Parliament, far-right parties make up both the third-largest group of MEPs, the Patriots for Europe (PfE), and the fourth-largest group, the ECR. The PfE parties have a prime minister (Hungary) in their ranks, along with two current and two former governing parties of member states. The extreme right in the European Parliament is clearly in a stronger position than ever before.
EU law broken
On Wednesday, the day before her election, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suffered a severe defeat before the General Court of the European Union (EGC). The case concerns contracts for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines that the EU Commission had concluded with vaccine manufacturers. A contract with the US company Pfizer for the supply of up to 1.8 billion doses of vaccine for a price of 35 billion euros was heavily criticised. The unit price was a whopping 25 per cent higher than the price of previous vaccine supplies, and the quantity far exceeded demand. In fact, vaccines worth four billion euros were subsequently destroyed as unwanted in 2023 alone.[1] It is no longer possible to shed sufficient light onto the way in which a contract that was so lucrative for Pfizer and so unprecedentedly expensive for the EU came about. For von der Leyen personally negotiated the contract with Pfizer boss Albert Bourla through text messages, and she now says she simply cannot locate those messages. Furthermore, the Commission was not prepared to make the contracts accessible. The ECJ ruling makes clear that the European Commission and its President have broken EU law by acting with excessive secrecy. They have been ordered to reestablish proper transparency.[2]
With the votes of the EPP
Cooperation with the ECR Group was considered out of the question just a few years ago. Its member parties not only belong to the far right but in many cases - such as the FdI – are directly rooted in neo-fascist traditions. Some are known for openly racist outbursts by leading members, as in the case of the Finns Party. Yet the ECR is now considered a legitimate partner for cooperation within the European Parliament. This was shown on Wednesday in the elected appointments to the parliament’s Bureau. Back in 2019, no ECR MEP was given a position of authority in the European Parliament immediately after the European elections of that year. This did happen for the first time two and a half years ago, in the case of Roberts Zīle from the Latvian ECR party National Alliance. Zīle was elected as one of the fourteen European Parliament Vice-Presidents at the beginning of 2022. Last Wednesday, not only was he re-elected but the ECR gained a second Vice-President position, filled this time by the Italian Antonella Sberna (FdI). Parliament insiders report that both appointments were made possible with votes from “centre-right” MEPs organised in the EPP group.[3] Some EPP MEPs also voted for Kosma Złotowski from another ECR party, the PiS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość). Złotowski, a Pole from the Law and Justice Party, took one of the five Quaestor posts that belong to the Bureau and confer administrative powers. All this means that the “cordon sanitaire” no longer exists. The “firewall” against the ECR has effectively collapsed.
“Partners for legislation”
The leader of the EPP group, Manfred Weber (CSU), is considered the architect of this emerging alliance. Weber had already been pushing for the centre to accept Italy's far-right coalition of Forza Italia (EPP), Fratelli d'Italia (ECR) and Lega (now Patriots for Europe) in the summer of 2022. That move came in the face of considerable internal and external resistance (german-foreign-policy.com reported).[4] He has now strengthened the invitation to the far right, campaigning for the ECR and its member parties in the European Parliament to be recognised by the EPP as potential partners. The election of three ECR MEPs to the Bureau of the European Parliament thanks to EPP votes was the acid test. And, in Weber's view, it was a success. According to one insider, the ECR group can now be considered “a potential partner for future legislation”. The cordon sanitaire has been redefined out of existence.[5] It is true that ECR co-chair Nicola Procaccini (FdI) stated that the FdI did not vote in favour of von der Leyen on Thursday. However, it is unclear why not. Meloni had reportedly demanded that an FdI politician be given an important post on the European Commission, with Meloni and von der Leyen discussing such a deal on Monday. If an FdI EU Commissioner was still considered a step too far, the FdI would have responded by withdrawing its support for von der Leyen. However, all the prerequisites for future FdI-EPP cooperation have in principle been met.
Stronger than ever
The cordon sanitaire against the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group is still in place. This grouping, which is headed by the French Rassemblement national (RN) under Jordan Bardella, includes the Hungarian Fidesz of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the Belgian Vlaams Belang (VB), the Italian Lega, the Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV), the Spanish Vox, the Portuguese Chega, the Czech ANO 2011 and the Austrian FPÖ. The PfE parties can boast one prime minister (Orbán), government participation in two countries (Italy, Netherlands), a record of ministerial power in Austria (FPÖ in 2011) and the strongest opposition force in France (RN). With 84 MEPs, they are currently the third-largest group in the European Parliament, now ahead of the far-right group ECR, which has 78 MEPs. In addition, there is the AfD-led Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, which only has 25 MEPs and all come from marginalised parties. The parties of the far right now form the third and fourth largest parliamentary groups, and one of them, the ECR, is now considered a viable partner for legislative cooperation. The new reality in the European Parliament gives the radical right considerable political leverage.
[1] Daniel Steinvorth: Umstrittener Impfstoff-Deal: Nun ermitteln Europas Korruptionsjäger gegen Ursula von der Leyen. nzz.ch 03.04.2024.
[2] Gericht: EU-Kommission mauerte. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 18.07.2024.
[3] Thomas Gutschker: Die EVP definiert den Cordon Sanitaire. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 18.07.2024.
[4] See also: „Wächter der pro-europäischen Politik“.
[5] Thomas Gutschker: Die EVP definiert den Cordon Sanitaire. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 18.07.2024.
