EU Social Democrats seek a tighter coalition with the EPP

Europe’s Social Democrats want to stop the European People’s Party from using far-right factions to win votes in the European Parliament. They are pushing instead for a binding alliance among pro-European parties of the center.

The proposal has found support in Germany. Niclas Herbst of the CDU and René Repasi of the SPD, the leading European Parliament members from their respective parties, called for a common front to halt the advance of right-nationalist and far-right parties, according to Politico.

Herbst warned that centrist parties risked handing power to populists and extremists if they failed to build trust, find workable solutions and deliver results for voters. “If we do not have trust, if we do not find good solutions and if we achieve nothing for people, then the populists and extremists will call the shots,” he said.

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If we do not have trust, if we do not find good solutions and if we achieve nothing for people, then the populists and extremists will call the shots.

A closer coalition would restrict the political room available to EPP chairman Manfred Weber of Germany’s CSU. Weber has recently relied on support from far-right groups in votes including measures that weakened climate policy.

Andreas Schieder, head of the Austrian SPÖ delegation, said parts of the CDU now understood that cooperating with factions seeking to destroy Europe made no sense. He backed the initiative, but said Weber would have to stop his “drifting to the right.”

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I also see parts of the CDU realizing that it makes no sense to work with factions that want to destroy Europe.