“The EPP is leading the fight against anti-Europeans, as shown, for example, by [Polish PM] Donald Tusk’s election results or the EPP membership of the [Orbán] opposition. We have clearly defined our red lines,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “There will be no cooperation with radicals who reject or violate any of our three basic principles — pro-Ukraine, pro-Europe, pro-rule of law. This applies to parties on [both] the right and the left. We are following our political and programmatic beliefs.”
The center right is increasingly pushing its agenda with the help of right-wing groups such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists. | Tiziana Fabi/Getty Images
Weber, though, is under pressure from both sides of the political spectrum.
“The EPP needs to make a decision: Do they want to drop the cordon sanitaire, and will they fully cooperate?” asked lawmaker Auke Zijlstra from the Dutch Party for Freedom, part of the far-right Patriots group.
Dutch MEP and Greens co-chair Bas Eickhout said: “This idea that the EPP is having, we can bend to the left when it’s needed and to the right when it’s needed, will fall [to] pieces when it comes down to legislative work.”
The EPP’s recent alternative to its so-called von der Leyen majority owes its name to a resolution passed by the Parliament in September, when the EPP sided for the first time with the right-wing ECR, the far-right Patriots for Europe and the far-right Sovereignists — mainly comprising Alternative for Germany lawmakers — to pass a nonbinding political declaration recognizing Edmundo González as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
González, the candidate of the Unitary Platform alliance against Nicolás Maduro in July’s presidential elections in that country, has been recognized by the United States and some South American countries as the legitimate president of Venezuela amid alleged irregularities that resulted in a declared Maduro victory. However, no EU country has yet formally recognized him.
The September Parliament resolution on González echoed a wider move to the right — and far right — across Europe. France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic are all EU countries where the far right is in government or is leading in the polls. Toughening up on migration, defense and competitiveness — all home territory for the center right — are themes now dominating political debate in Brussels.