Article content
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union marks its annual Europe Day on Thursday, but instead of the monotonous celebrations, all eyes are on EU elections a month from now that portend a steep rise of the far right and a possible shift away from global landmark climate policy of the block.
After decades in which the EU elections attracted little attention, the vote from June 6th to 9th is the most important in the memory. It comes at a time of ongoing crisis on a continent experiencing war in Ukraine, climate catastrophes, shifting geopolitical plates and fundamental questions about the scope and purpose of the EU itself.
Advertising 2
Article content
Article content
“It will be an existential struggle,” said Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and outgoing free-market Liberal MP who has been at the heart of EU politics for more than a quarter of a century. It will “push into a corner those who want less Europe and then the political forces that understand that in the world of tomorrow you need a much more integrated European Union to defend the interests of Europeans,” he said in an interview.
In stark political terms, this refers to those traditional socialist, liberal and green forces that, together with the Christian Democrats, have ruled the EU Parliament for the last five years against the emerging forces of the hard nationalist right, exemplified by leaders such as Viktor Orban of Hungary and Georgia Meloni of Italy.
The vote is the second-largest democratic exercise after India’s elections, as the 27-nation bloc of 450 million people selects 720 parliamentarians to give them crucial votes over the next five years on everything from digital privacy rules to international trade policy and Climate action.
But when the results are released late on June 9, it will be an indication of whether the political shift on the continent will match the rightward movement that is growing across much of the world from Argentina to the Netherlands and Slovakia is observed.
Top stories
Article content
Advertising 3
Article content
Even if the polls vary somewhat on the margins of gains, they all point to one thing: the nationalist far-right and populist parties will make strong gains.
“When I look at the polls across Europe, I always see more or less the same scenario,” said Nicola Procaccini, Meloni’s man in the European Parliament, who usually considers himself part of the center-right movement, which is far from the center -Right-wing movement removes neo-fascist roots of his party “Brothers of Italy”.
He said like-minded parties “are on the rise more or less everywhere.” These include election victories in the Netherlands and Slovakia, as well as polls showing them leading in France with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
When it comes to fundamentals, the EU battle could be seen as Verhofstadt vs. Procaccini, with one insisting that only more common policies on issues like defense are the answer to the EU’s impending global challenges, and the other says that individual member states, with their valued nationality at the center, should always come first.
While 27 nations with often ineffective individual defense programs have left Western Europe at the mercy of U.S. goodwill for much of the last half century, Verhofstadt wants a full defense union to fend off a belligerent Russia and expects Donald Trump to take a non-committal stance from the United States. Trump becomes president in November . “It is not individual member states that will protect people,” he said.
Advertising 4
Article content
“And that’s why it’s an existential struggle. Because if we lose this fight against the right-wing parties, we will be left without defense and without security,” said Verhofstadt.
Procaccini focuses instead on what many far-right parties see as intrusion and outright interference in national affairs by the EU institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg, France. They have explicitly opposed the EU’s Green Deal to curb climate change and have taken targeted measures to force farmers to adopt more environmentally friendly practices by overwhelming and overriding national decision-making. They want to recall the EU’s tentative beginnings around 60 years ago, when cooperation was much more voluntary and limited.
“We want to restore the original idea of Europe,” said Procacinni.
The anti-EU parties are unlikely to gain a grip on legislative power, but a push for third place behind the Christian Democrats and Socialists would have a big impact. If the European Foreign Affairs Council’s prediction is correct, the think tank says that “this ‘sharp right turn’ is likely to have significant consequences for policy at the European level… particularly on environmental issues, where the new majority is likely to oppose an ambitious EU . “Measures to combat climate change.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already relaxed some climate rules, and her center-right Christian Democrats European People’s Party, the largest in the legislature, has moved to the right on migration in addition to climate policy.
A failure of the Green Deal would ensure that the EU is faced not only with geopolitical crises, but also with a crisis of its own making.
Europe Day on Thursday honors Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, who once said: “Europe is forged in crises.”
Article content