TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has claimed Fine Gael’s European Parliamentary group, the European People’s Party (EPP), are willing to work with more radical parties in Europe, if “they respect European values and the rule of law fundamentally”.
The EPP, a centre-right, Christian democrat parliamentary group which Fine Gael are a member of, are currently hosting a party congress in Bucharest, Romania to reaffirm it’s values and agenda ahead of the European elections in June.
Previously polling, ahead of the elections, has found that anti-European populist parties are predicted to top polls in at least nine EU Member States. There has also been a rise in popularity in both far-right and far-left candidates across the continent.
The EPP are viewed as moderate conservatives in the European parliament – compared to more right-leaning, Eurosceptic groups in the bloc – and Fine Gael is a founding member of the group.
Asked by The Journal in Bucharest today where he believes the EPP will lie in the Parliament, with the possibility of more radical candidates being elected by the public in June, Varadkar said he believes it will be based on a “case-by-case basis”.
“Our traditional allies when it comes to trying to put together European programs after the elections are the social Social Democrats and liberals. I don’t think that will change,” the Taoiseach said.
Varadkar assured that the EPP could form a coalition with some radical groups and reaffirmed the group’s stance to work with those who share similar values.
“I don’t want to create the impression that we’re open to working with the far right and far left. But we have found it possible,” Varadkar said.
“For example, with Alexis Tsipras, who was elected as a very radical left Prime Minister of Greece actually turned out to be somebody we could work with.
“And if you look at Giorgia Meloni in Italy would not be somebody who is close to me ideologically but we have been able to work with her,” he added.
The Taoiseach ruled out any possibility that the EPP could work with Hungary’s Viktor Órban – whose Fidesz party left the Parliamentary group in 2021 – or the far-right members of Poland’s delegation.
However, Varadkar told The Journal that the situation would “depend on whether they respect European values and the rule of a law fundamentally”.
“And that’s why we can’t work with those far-right and far-left groups that don’t,” he added.
The EPP currently makes up a coalition in the European Parliament with liberal, centre-left groups: the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) parliamentary group and Renew, Fianna Fáil’s Parliamentary group.
While the coalition has been able to work together over the Parliament’s current term, cracks have appeared in the union between the EPP and its Parliamentary partners.
Notably, at very beginning of its term, many members of S&D did not vote for or approve of the EPP candidate, Ursula von der Leyen, to be the EU Commission’s President.
Internally, and most recently, Fine Gael disagreed with other parties which make up the EPP over their stance on the Nature Restoration Law last week.
Fianna Fáil MEPs have told The Journal that they feel Renew will be left out of the next parliament’s coalition, due to the expected “shift to the right”.
Additional reporting by Jane Matthews at the EPP congress in Romania.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say