Renew Europe seeks to close ranks after collapse. Hayer re-elected president of the group

Brussels – An attempt at a united response after days on a rollercoaster ride of overtakes, failed counter-overtakes, new members (few) and (substantial) exits: The Renew Europe group in the European Parliament elected its chair today (June 25), confirming outgoing leader, Valérie Hayer. “We will lead the opposition to the scourge of political and economic populism that is infecting European politics,” declared the French MEP in her first speech as re-elected leader of the European Liberal Group, “Renew Europe is determined to be a vanguard of pro-European values at the heart of the EU Parliament.”

Early last week, the Renew Europe group, which dropped from 100 to 80 members after the June 6–9 European elections, was overtaken in third place—behind the European People’s Party (189) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (136)—by the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (83). With the entry of a new Belgian member of Les Engagés, the counter-overtake seemed to have begun, but there immediately came the icy shower of dismissal of seven Czech members from the liberal-conservative oriented populist party Ano 2011 (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens) of former prime minister Andrej Babiš, which thus caused the number of members of the Renew Europe group to plummet to 74. That was before seeing dashed even hopes of a return to 80—to try a very difficult comeback over the conservative right—which came yesterday (June 24) with the decision of the 5 Volt MEPs to reconfirm the alliance with the Green/Ale group and not switching to the European Liberal group, mainly because of the lack of strong action against that the Dutch VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy), which gave the green light to a government with the far-right Party for Freedom.

At the group’s constituent meeting, Renew Europe’s 74 MEPs tried to close ranks and set out priorities for negotiating an “ambitious and radical” pro-European agenda for the incoming European Parliament and Commission’s next term, including through the adoption of a Charter focusing on defence, security, competitiveness, rule of law, individual rights and European sovereignty. “We are full of ambition and ideas on how to build a stronger Europe that improves the lives of all citizens,” Hayer confirmed, while the eight vice presidents are expected to be elected tomorrow morning (June 26). Congratulations have also come from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party, one of the souls of the Renew Europe project most restless about Hayer’s confirmation.

It was precisely the German-driven political faction that had initially tried to name an alternative candidate to Hayer to blow the chairmanship of the parliamentary group to Renaissance, the party of the French president, Emmanuel Macron (who suffered a clear defeat in the European elections). At last weekend’s Vilnius summit, the Portuguese João Cotrim de Figueiredo (Liberal Initiative) had been nominated. Still, most members of the same party (particularly the Dutch, Germans, and Slovaks) were reluctant to give a political shake-up to a group already in extreme difficulty after collapsing to fourth place in the EU Parliament. Thus, last night, on the eve of Renew Europe’s constituent meetings, Cotrim de Figueiredo himself stepped down, and only the outgoing leader candidate to succeed herself in the tenth legislature remained.