By
N. Peter Kramer
‘Socialists and liberals are natural allies for the centre-right conservative European People’s Party (EPP) in the next European Parliament’, according to Manfred Weber. But he is looking for more friends as EPP’s candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission.
Probably Socialists will be wiped out in the European elections in May; and also for the liberals the ‘political barometer’ doesn’t show nice weather.
‘The invitation (to be an ally) is open to all’, Weber said at the launch event of his ‘listening tour’ that will take him on a journey across the EU in the coming months. But, he made clear that the EPP will only talk to political groups which share pro-European values and are not manifestly against the EU.
Many present at Weber’s launch frown upon this statement of the Bavarian politician. Isn’t EPP’s Hungarian partner Fidesz seriously underfooting European values according to the European Parliament including the majority of EPP MEPs? Has Weber this overseen?
‘Der Manfred’ made his audience even more stupefied when he told them that he appreciated the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR). Ten years ago the ECR was formed by the British Conservatives to provide a euro-critical alternative to the EPP’s traditionally blind pro-EU stance. Weber even praised ECR’s member and Poland’s governing national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The European Commission, with strong support of the European Parliament including the EPP, started the ‘nuclear procedure’ against the Polish government (so against PiS) because of underfooting European values.
And to tip it all, Weber made strong advances to Matteo Salvini, Italy’s vice-prime minister and leader of Italy’s far right party Lega. At the same moment, Salvini was in Warsaw to talk with PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski about Lega’s replacing the British Conservatives in the ECR group.
Weber said also that he couldn’t believe that Salvini was a friend of Marine Le Pen, because she is opposing the EU and the euro. It looks like he doesn’t really know what the EU reality is. Weber the successor of Juncker? At least before lunch, the last shows that he knows quite well what’s going on…
