14 November 2013

Le Pen and Wilders forge plan to 'wreck' EU from within

As reported by the Guardian, two of Europe's leading far-right populists struck a pact on Wednesday to build a continental alliance to wreck the European parliament from within, and slay "the monster in Brussels".

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's right-wing nationalist Front National, and Geert Wilders, the Dutch maverick anti-Islam campaigner, announced they were joining forces ahead of European parliament elections next year to seek to exploit the euroscepticism soaring across the EU after four years of austerity, and the financial and debt crisis.

The rise of populists on the right and the left, from Sweden to Greece, has worried the mainstream EU elites and is already shaping policy ahead of the May elections. At the top level of EU institutions in Brussels, there is talk of "populists, xenophobes, extremists, fascists" gaining around 30 per cent of seats in the next parliament and using that platform to try to paralyse EU policy-making.

The aim of the electoral alliance appears to be to form a Trojan horse in Brussels and Strasbourg: a large parliamentary caucus dedicated to wrecking the very institution that the far-right has entered. To qualify for caucus status, the new group needs at least 25 MEPs from seven countries, which they will get easily on current poll projections, although it is not clear if they can yet muster seven national parties.

Both politicians are currently riding high in the polls in their own countries. A poll last month in France put the Front National at 24 per cent ahead of the governing Socialists and the mainstream conservatives. Wilders' Freedom party, while suffering setbacks in elections last year, is currently leading in Dutch opinion polls. Eurosceptic parties or those actively committed to wrecking the EU and to ditching the single currency are also expected to do well in Greece, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and elsewhere in eastern Europe, while Nigel Farage's UK Independence party is being tipped as a possible winner of European elections in Britain.

The aim of the Franco-Dutch alliance is to bring in Sweden's Democrats, also rising in the polls, the anti-immigration Danish People's party, Austria's Freedom party of Heinz-Christian Strache, which took more than 20 per cent in recent national elections, and the right-wing Flemish separatists of Vlaams Belang. The Telegraph further reported that Geert Wilders has invited UKIP's Nigel Farage to join anti-EU alliance. He urged Mr Farage, the head of Britain’s eurosceptic UKIP party, to "join our initiative" after making what he said was a "historic" announcement of a pan-European "movement of patriots".

The Dutch anti-Muslim and Freedom Party leader, who has previously distanced himself from far Right groups including the Front National (FN), urged the more respectable British party to ally with them, saying: "I have a lot of respect for Nigel Farage – I think he is an excellent politician who is understandably very popular in the UK. I understand that he is not too eager today to work with my party and the others. But let me tell you, I hope that after the elections next May that UKIP will be able to join our initiative."

By forming a new caucus in the European parliament, the group would gain access to funding, committee seats and chairs, and much more prominent chamber speaking rights. Farage, leading a caucus of 33 MEPs, has exploited the opportunity deftly to raise his European and national profile. So far, writes the EUObserver, Le Pen's Alliance for Freedom Party hadn't been able to reach group status within the legislature and previous attempts to build a right-wing bloc have failed amid disagreements among different national parties. To form a party group, an alliance needs at least 25 members from at least seven EU countries. 

The WSJ (subscription required) reported that an Ifop poll last month showed 24 per cent of those interviewed would support the National Front in May, the best rate scored by the populist party. In the survey, which polled 1,893 potential French voters, the party came ahead of the mainstream conservative Union for a Popular Movement and of the governing Socialists.

"It's a vote dictated by despair", said Jean Chiche, a professor at Paris-based university Sciences Po. "People are thinking: 'We tried with the right, we tried with the left, we still don't have a job, let's give the Front National a try.'"

See also: Commissioner says France needs Europe if it is to maintain its position in the world stage - Reding takes on Le Pen © NewEurope