The European People’s Party confirmed yesterday its turn to the right with the approval of the manifesto with which it will present itself in the next elections to the European Parliament, a document that on certain issues paradoxically represents an amendment to the entire policies promoted by one of its own. , the current president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who today will be proclaimed a candidate to preside over the institution for four more years.
Relations with her political family are not excellent but her appointment as head of the list for the campaign will be a military ride for Von der Leyen, who reaches this phase of the process without rivals. The next stage will not be complicated either: the EPP will be, barring a major surprise, the party with the most votes in the elections to the European Parliament on June 9 and the German has enough support, beyond her party, for the leaders of the Twenty-seven They appoint her in June as the next president of the community executive.
But the next stage, the secret vote in the plenary session of the European Parliament, promises to be much more complicated for Von der Leyen. Driven by its president, Manfred Weber, the EPP’s approach to the extreme right, at the level of program and potential political alliances after the elections, could take its toll and endanger the support of the progressive wing of the chamber. Part of the socialists, liberals and greens supported her in 2019 (she was elected by just 9 votes difference) and the German has relied on them to form majorities and carry out her major legislative proposals.
Now, however, they don’t trust his plans and could be kicked out. According to the polls, in the next legislature the EPP could rely on the conservatives and the ultra-right, which hopes to advance positions in June and offer an alternative alliance to Weber’s in case the left does not agree to slow down the energy transition or tighten the community asylum policy.
Regarding the first issue, the final text of the manifesto no longer talks about reversing the ban on selling cars with combustion engines after 2035 as requested by the German CDU, but it does call for “leaving room for private, local and “Industrial organizations can find appropriate technological solutions” to achieve the objectives, which is subject to the defense of economic interests.
Regarding asylum legislation, the popular Europeans are committed to promoting “a fundamental change”, implementing a kind of “Rwandan model” like the one discussed in the United Kingdom based on the concept of “safe” third countries to manage the arrival of immigrants. According to its proposal, detailed in the manifesto approved yesterday by the delegates of 51 parties associated with the EPP, the EU would conclude agreements with these countries so that asylum seekers are transferred there and receive protection “in a civilized and safe manner” during the processing of their demands. If it works, the Twenty-seven could admit an annual “quota” for people who need humanitarian protection.
The EPP maintains that its proposals are in accordance with international law and assures, using a term often heard in the mouths of the far right, that they would help put a stop to “uncontrolled immigration.” The Commission has been very critical of this formula in the past. To the Commissioner of the Interior, Ylva Johansson, it did not seem “neither human nor worthy”, but she has now assumed that the agreement signed by Giorgia Meloni’s Italy with the Government of Albania by which it outsources the management of the demands for protection, it is simply “outside” of community legislation.
Meloni’s party, the Brothers of Italy, is one of the formations that the EPP and Von der Leyen are considering turning to to achieve the German’s re-election. His only red line, he said, is that they be formations that defend democracy, support Ukraine and do not flirt with Vladimir Putin, conditions that leave out Marine Le Pen’s party and Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz but that will allow him to fish for votes in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR, the group to which Vox belongs) or in Identity and Democracy (far-right).
Von der Leyen will have to make serious balances. The vote of the European Parliament is not scheduled until September, a calendar that “does not favor it”, because it gives room for the organization of “guerrillas” in the different groups to try to negotiate concessions, admit EPP sources, who trust that at In the end, “the sense of responsibility” prevails.
