The European elections of June 9, 2024, in addition to the election of new MEPs, promised to be a great barometer of what the Portuguese thought a year and a half after António Costa won an absolute majority for the Socialist Party. But the crisis in the government, with the departure of the prime minister, forced the parliamentary elections to be brought forward to March 10. What impact will this have on Europeans three months later, with signs of a growth of the far right in the European Parliament?
“I don’t know if the word damage is appropriate. But I think that the fact that the parliamentary elections are taking place before and so close to the national elections will necessarily disrupt the political dynamics between the two electoral acts,” said Socialist MEP Margarida Marques. said DN, on the sidelines of a meeting with Portuguese journalists in Brussels last week. “It is clear that, from my point of view, it is not positive that the preparation of the Europeans coincides with the composition of the government that will emerge from the March elections, regardless of the choices. It will be a disrupted political period, normal in a democracy, but disrupted. But national elections have one purpose and European elections another purpose,” he argued.
“I think that the fact that the national elections come first before the European elections will lead to a greater discussion of European issues afterwards. If it were European issues first, I am sure that, as always, there would be a lot of talk about that. Therefore, I believe that there is an opportunity to address the national question in a much stronger way at the March 10 elections and that the European elections also leave enough time for everyone to defend their proposals, your vision,” said MEP José Manuel Fernandes, of the PSD. “Unless the implementation of a government is impossible,” he emphasized, showing confidence in the social -democratic victory and stuck to the idea that whoever wins should rule.
“Even without upcoming elections, there is always a tendency to nationalize the debate in the European elections,” said Left Bloc MEP Marisa Matias. “Now it is clear that, with some elections so close together, I believe that the dynamics created in the national elections will have a direct impact not only on the campaign, but even on the results of the European ones,” he said. explained.
PCP member João Pimenta Lopes argued that it is important not to confuse the two electoral acts that are “different,” despite there being “inevitable” issues that coincide. “Certainly, both electoral acts will be an opportunity, and as we see it, to put on the table the concrete problems that people are facing, and to combat those problems with the solutions to those problems and the alternative policies that are absolutely necessary. , and which would otherwise prevent these solutions from being achieved,” he indicated.
The Europeans are on June 9, a date that the Portuguese did not like as it is the eve of the Portugal Day holiday. Efforts are being made to enable mobile and early voting, to avoid a repeat of the abstention rate of the last Europeans – 69.3% in 2019, 66.2% in 2014. “Abstention has been tragically high, but that may happen unless proximity can create some degree of abstinence.” dynamics that push people to settle scores,” said Marisa Matias, recalling the importance of the European Parliament’s next term.
The extreme right is growing
In the coming years, the European Union will have to prepare the next multi-annual budget, but also deal with the possible expansion to the east and the reforms that it will entail. According to polls, the far right will gain ground in the European Parliament. “As crucial as it is for the European project, the strengthening of the far right is clearly a real threat,” said the BE member, recalling that “it exists in the European Parliament, contrary to what happens in many countries, also in ours. the good democratic practice of the cordon sanitary in relation to the extreme right, which does not perform the functions of chairing committees and delegations… I do not know if this cordon sanitary will survive,” he complains.
Socialist Margarida Marques recalls the importance of resolving, for example, the issue of budget revision before the elections – necessary to face the many crises caused first by the pandemic and then by the war in Ukraine.
“The European Union must continue to support Ukraine. But it is essential to strike a balance between support for Ukraine and support to alleviate the consequences of the war,” he said, explaining that there is pressure to use money already earmarked for cohesion policy to Help Kiev. “We are fighting to ensure that aid to Ukraine does not come from the Union budget, because this is food for the far right. It gives them arguments,” he said.
For the communist MEP, the issue does not arise in that way, given that there is a “superficial rather than fundamental fragmentation” in the European Parliament. “The question is not so much whether we have a bloc on the right that is more right-wing because of some more represented forces, or a bloc that is said to be on the left. The question is whether the policy being implemented has changed or not. Because even these more reactionary forces, which may have greater expression in the European Parliament and the National Parliament, are essentially coming together with the forces on the right and in social democracy in what is the embrace and implementation of what are the guidelines of the position of the liberal policies of the European Union, the militaristic policies, the rejection of policies that allow an unfair distribution of wealth.”
José Manuel Fernandes warns against other extremism. “We run the risk of having a European Parliament where the number of moderates is decreasing, with left-wing radicalism and right-wing radicalism, who in fact take very similar positions on budgetary and economic matters. But there is also a new extremism, namely green radicalism, which radicalizes the discourse and makes it impossible to achieve climate goals,” he claimed. “Because ambition must be combined with realism and gradualism and cannot be done against people, they must be involved. Not having this attitude again favors the extremes, and this radicalism also helps with that, more than the extreme left. it helps the extreme right enormously,” said the PSD MEP.
With regard to the far right, he believes that “all it does is use the European Parliament to transmit messages and pursue contrary policies”, as the concern does not have to be with the balance of forces in the European Parliament – in the belief that the moderates will remain the majority – but in the European Council.
“Because if in any Member State, and especially in a strong Member State, the far right wins or has the capacity to exert influence, as it is already starting to do, there will be a blockade in the Council and we will have a new the multiannual financial framework requires unanimity of the Council. That is why this concern exists, but it will have much more damaging consequences for other Member States, which means that what happens and is decided in this European Union and what influences within it a Member State has collateral effects, repercussions that ultimately affect all Member States and all European citizens. “
DN traveled at the invitation of the European Commission
Source: DN
