“We want to convince everyone to join a single [European] political party,” said Gilles Boyer, a French MEP from a party called Horizons created by former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, allied to Macron. “The message is that we’re uniting and that’ll make us stronger,” Boyer, who will be the association’s treasurer, added.
Macron’s MEPs sit with the likes of Boyer and liberals from other countries in a grouping called Renew Europe, which is currently the Parliament’s third-largest force with 102 MEPs. The liberal MEPs allied to Macron’s deputies hail from two EU-level liberal parties that predated his outfit by decades: the classical liberal bloc called Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) long-dominated by Dutchman Mark Rutte, and the small centrist European Democratic Party (EDP).
With all its various factions, the liberals’ fragmentation on the European level could weaken them just as the far right is surging ahead of June’s EU election.
“If you want to consolidate a bloc against the far right, then you need to consolidate. We’re sending that message,” said Michal Kobosco, president of the New Europeans association and also the chairman of Polska 2050 political party.
Forming an EU-level political party would also give Renaissance access to millions of euros of EU funding from the European Parliament’s budget.
“For five years, it was alright because it also allowed us to have more freedom, but after the summer it’ll be time to talk about the status of a proper European party,” one of the people involved in the organization, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the proposal, said.
