BERLIN:Right-wing populist parties are gearing up to campaign for European Parliamentelections next month, but policy differences and the Brexit drama threatentheir dream to "unite the right". Many fear the May 26 vote will be awake-up call for Brussels on the reality that Europe's anti-immigration andblood-and-soil patriotic forces have moved from the fringes to the mainstream.
Once considered outsiders, they could now end up with one fifth or more of theseats, allowing them to shift the tone of political discourse and make a claimfor legitimacy. Key players are Marine Le Pen's National Rally (NR) in Franceand the Italian League of Matteo Salvini, who is hosting a meeting of like-mindedright-wing groups in Milan on Monday. In the EU's top economy, the Alternativefor Germany (AfD) has become the biggest opposition party by railing againstChancellor Angela Merkel and her 2015 decision to allow a mass influx of asylumseekers.
Yesterday the AfD gathered in the city of Offenburg to present its electionprogram, which calls for "a Europe of fatherlands" and opposes theEU's immigration, financial and climate policies. On Monday in Milan, Italiandeputy PM Salvini will follow up and gather allies from across Europe to try tolay the foundations for a future hard-right grouping in the now 751-memberEuropean Parliament. Salvini and Le Pen also agreed to call another meeting inMay, after they met in Paris on Friday, a NR source said. "The leaders areconsidering a common manifesto to close the electoral campaign and announce thestart of a new Europe," said a spokesman for Salvini.
International of nationalists?
So far, Europe's right-wing nationalists have been divided into three blocs anda tangled web of alliances in the legislature that moves between seats inBrussels and the French city of Strasbourg. They are the Europe of Nations andFreedom (ENF) group, which includes the RN and League, the EuropeanConservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Europe of Freedom and DirectDemocracy (EFDD).
The dream of Salvini - and of Steve Bannon, the former advisor to US PresidentDonald Trump - has been to unite the disparate patriotic forces and form an"international of nationalists". But so far such efforts have metwith only limited success, in part because the parties' nationalist focus runscounter to a multi-national approach. Another problem for the groups has beenthat, despite their shared dislike for immigration, multiculturalism, the leftand the EU, they remain divided on other key issues.
On economic policy, the AfD and their Scandinavian allies tend to believe inthe market economy, while the French RN favors a more protectionist and statistapproach. While Italy's League, Poland's PiS and Hungary's Fidesz highlightEurope's Christian cultural roots, the RN has shied away from taking a similarstance in a country where the majority is in favor of secularism. And even onimmigration, Salvini's League favors an EU-wide redistribution of asylumseekers while others demand an outright stop to immigration. On relations withRussia, Salvini has praised President Vladimir Putin, a view not shared byPoland's governing party.
'Patriotic alliance'?
The AfD's top candidate Joerg Meuthen said he expects big gains for nationalistparties but that they will have trouble forming a "patrioticalliance" with a common agenda. The parties "have the same or similarpositions on migration policy but very different views in other areas," hetold AFP. There are also strategic deliberations. Hungary's Prime MinisterViktor Orban has voiced admiration for Salvini but was considered unlikely tocome to the Milan meeting given his Fidesz party still belongs to thecentre-right European People's party (EPP) group, despite its temporarysuspension.
Meanwhile, most parties have also toned down their anti-EU rhetoric as theBrexit debacle has made the prospect of leaving the bloc look far lessappealing. Le Pen renounced a "Frexit" after the 2017 presidentialelection and her disastrous debates against Emmanuel Macron, while Germany'sAfD has downgraded a "Dexit" scenario to a "last resort".Still, the potential of the far-right must not be underestimated, said SvenHutten, political scientist at Berlin's Free University. He warned that suchgroups target "15 to 30 percent of the population" and that at themoment "the populist right is fighting for unity and to build a singlebloc".- AFP