Christophe CLERGEAU

Vice-Chair of the S&D Group in the European Parliament

In his article published on 8 November in the Progressive Post, Nicola Zingaretti brilliantly and thoroughly described the progressive positions that we must defend within the new EU Commission. I fully share his points, but I would like to highlight a key question as a contribution to the reflection his contribution opened: the very nature of the political majority governing Europe. 

We are at a critical moment, facing two possible futures. One is made of a pro-European majority in which Socialists have significant influence and the ability to advance the political agenda laid out by Nicola Zingaretti. The other is shaped by a ‘Trumpist’ majority, born of the convergence between the EPP and the extreme rights. One that we could never be a part of.

For months now, the European right and extreme right have come together around a common agenda: criticising the Green Deal, rejecting an ambitious EU budget, pushing the rhetoric of ‘simplification’ (which does a poor job of hiding their desire to deregulate and challenge recent environmental and social achievements), denouncing ‘wokeism’, frantically pushing repressive immigration policies, exalting Europe’s Christian values… This convergence is here for everyone to see, as attested by their votes in Parliament and their public statements. For the first time, the entire ‘cordon sanitaire’ has exploded, and the EPP no longer hesitates to lend their votes to amendments coming from the extreme rights groups.

This convergence also has an institutional manifestation in the Council and the Commission. Governments led by the extreme rights, established in coalition with the extreme rights, or overtly chasing extreme rights rhetoric and policies are almost a majority in the Council. Demands for new legislation to facilitate the return of migrants embody this convergence. Within the Commission, the choice to appoint an Italian neo-fascist as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission reflects Ursula Von Der Leyen’s desire to strike a lasting political pact with the extreme right.

The European Parliament is the last obstacle to the completion of this political project. Recent votes in the EP have shown that part of the European extreme rights, and, in particular, the ‘Patriots’ group, will never vote for the College of Commissioners or the EU budget. Without the support of the European Socialists, there is no majority to govern the EU. It is, therefore, up to Socialists to refuse to the very end a college that would include an extreme right Executive Vice-President. In doing so, they would be faithful to their political identity, and to their European project; by doing so they can force Ursula von der Leyen to back down, and thus put a stop to the current convergence between the European right and extreme rights that would serve as the crucible for a ‘Trumpist’ Europe.

This debate is not a debate of party politics; it touches on the very heart of the European project and its future. The advent of this ‘Trumpist’ majority would be the end of Europe as we know it. It would entail abandoning Ukraine and submitting to Russia. It would mean renouncing the Green Deal, the Social Pillar, and our ambitions of energy and industrial sovereignty. It would bring to a halt the progress we have made in affirming Human Rights. It would condemn us to the irremediable collapse of major European policies, such as agricultural or cohesion policy, in the face of a budgetary wall. In other words, the advent of this ‘Trumpist’ majority either would lead to the dislocation of the EU, or to a soulless Europe reduced to organising cooperation between its member states. Both possibilities are daydreams of the European extreme right.

For the political agenda by Nicola Zingaretti to remain possible, as is our common objective, one of two scenarios will have to happen. Either Ursula Von Der Leyen renounces making Raffaele Fitto an EVP of the Commission, and thus renounces her strategic partnership with the extreme right group, or the Socialists vote against the college with the clear objective that it be rejected, forcing the president of the Commission to return to the agreement reached with her in July to constitute a pro-European majority. Such a crisis may not be desirable, and we are collectively doing everything we can to avoid it under the leadership of Iratxe García Pérez, but to renounce defeating the Faustian pact between the EPP and the extreme rights would be to renounce the European project reaffirmed by Nicola Zingaretti and shared by all European Socialists and Democrats.

Photo credits: European Union, 2024