BRUSSELS — The head of European Parliament’s liberals ruled out working with nationalists if European elections deliver a right-wing majority in June.
“We should take the control of our destiny and of European policy, and not let the far right in the next six months tell us that all is out of control,” Stéphane Séjourné said, arguing that the EU has managed to “put a bit of order back” on topics from joint purchasing Covid vaccines, reining in social media giants, and agreeing a common migration and asylum regime.
Polls suggest the current coalition of conservatives, social democrats and liberals, which has shaped policy positions since 2019, will cobble together a majority — but only just, as right and far-right groups surge in popularity.
“We are risking an ungovernable Europe. It’s quite real in terms of arithmetic,” said Séjourné, who leads more than 100 members of the Renew Europe group.
Séjourné, who is close to French President Emmanuel Macron, said he won’t agree to work with the far-right in the next European Parliament — and refused to align with the nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which contains far-right parties such as Poland’s Law and Justice and Spain’s Vox. If Séjourné keeps his word it would likely kill off the chances of a right-leaning coalition in Parliament that would significantly up-end five years of progressive policymaking on topics such as the landmark Green Deal climate legislation.
With the far-right polling high in his own country, where Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is well ahead of his and Macron’s Renaissance party, Séjourné said the strategy for countering the populist far-right should be to challenge the claim that everything is out of control in Europe, as encapsulated in the famous Brexit slogan “take back control.”
According to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, the ECR is within touching distance of leapfrogging Séjourné’s Renew, which is slated to lose 19 seats and fall to being the fifth largest group of seven in Parliament.
For the past year the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) has flirted with with some parts of the ECR, notably Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing populist Brothers of Italy MEPs.
Séjourné said he does not put all nationalist and right-wing parties in the same basket, suggesting if Euroskeptics were able to rid themselves of more extreme parties he might change his mind. “Either the ECR does a clean-up operation and sorts the respectable parties from the non-respectable ones … or at this stage it’s strictly impossible.”
The conservatives and socialists will announce respective lead candidates in March but the liberals’ campaign plans are so far less certain. While proposing a single person to embody the liberals’ campaign is an option, Séjourné suggested he preferred a team of three politicians, each as a candidate for the EU’s three main institutions: the Commission, Council and Parliament.
He remained tight-lipped about whether European Council President Charles Michel, who announced he will drop his job early to run in the Parliament elections and is part of the liberals’ faction, could be one of the trio. “He plays an important role in the political family,” was all Séjourné said, saying it was more a question for Michel himself.
Dismissing pessimistic polling, Séjourné claimed to have seen in-house projections that could maintain his group at around 90 to 100 members — partly thanks to the emergence of smaller liberal parties in Eastern Europe that could compensate for the collapse of other parties in the Liberal grouping.
“That makes me hope that we can stay kingmaker in the European Parliament and the third largest group,” Séjourné said.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS
For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.
