“Let’s collaborate”: conservatives attempt right-wing alliance, from Populars to Patriots

Brussels – It was only a matter of time. The time of the “cordon sanitaire,” erected by centrist and pro-Europeanist forces to keep the far right out of the control rooms, is now a memory, relegated to the past. While that of a collaboration between the various souls of the European right, from the (theoretically) moderate to the most extreme, seems ripe. That is, what the Conservatives have proposed to their Popular colleagues to redraw the balances in the Europarliament.

Until a few years ago, a collaboration between the different right-wing groups in the Strasbourg EU Parliament would have seemed like science fiction. The only thinkable majority, which has ruled the EU for decades, was the centrist one made up of the Popular (EPP), Socialist (S&D) and Liberal (first Alde, then Renew) families, propped up on the outside by the Greens in the last legislature.

But today (Jan. 30), science fiction has become likely, after the Conservatives and Reformists of the ECR—led in the chamber by Melonian Nicola Procaccini and Polish Patryk Jaki—have sent a letter to fellow Christian Democrats, reaching out to them to “build bridges across party divisions and produce results that benefit European citizens and businesses.” A change of course in this 10th legislature, then, from the previous one, which, the missive reads, was “heavily influenced by the direction set by a centre-left majority.”

The Conservatives, at whose summit there has been a mid-month turnover between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, have moreover suggested opening the door to the Patriots (PfE), the political creature of Viktor Orbán who, with 84 deputies, is the third largest group in the hemicycle behind the Populars and Socialists.

It is, in fact, a response to the appeal launched only a few days ago by Jordan Bardella, president of France’s Rassemblement National (RN) and PfE group leader in Strasbourg, to the right-wingers in the parliament—including ultra-right wing Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN)—to join forces and finally tear up what remains of the Green deal.

Considering figures, these four groups combined have the absolute majority of seats: 188 for the EPP, 84 for the Patriots, 78 for the Conservatives, and 25 for the ESN. Of course, in politics, math is not everything. But it must be said that never before has Europe moved so far to the right, on all levels, which makes, precisely, an eventuality such as the one aired these days less sci-fi.

Not only is there, technically, an alternative majority in the Parliament (the one renamed “Venezuela” and already seen at work on several occasions including, on the Green deal theme, when the EPP tried watering down the EU regulation on deforestation), but also the EU executive has never seen such a clear-cut preponderance of right-wing commissioners, including the first ever in the ECR quota in the person of Vice-President Raffaele Fitto.

And it doesn’t end there. Even nationally, the political Zeitgeist is blowing strongly to the right. Notwithstanding the governments already in office (from the Italian one, whose majority shareholder is a party that still has the tricolour flame of the MSI in its symbol, to the Dutch one, into which the xenophobic and eurosceptic far-right of the PVV has entered for the first time, to give two examples), the most recent developments in the two largest member states leave no room for doubt about the trajectory the Old Continent is following.

In Berlin, Alternative für Deutschland (also pumped up by Elon Musk, who just before performing a double Nazi salute at Donald Trump‘s inauguration has publicly exalted its leader Alice Weidel) has over 20 per cent support in the polls for next month’s elections, and just this week the likely future chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) made half of Europe shake in their boots by aligning himself (unintentionally, he says) with the post-Nazi party to get the Bundestag to approve a pair of non-binding documents calling for a crackdown on illegal immigration.

In Paris, Marine Le Pen’s RN—who came first last summer in both the European and legislative elections (considering the results obtained by individual parties)—holds the Assemblée nationale in check, where she sets the agenda and has already brought down Michel Barnier’s government, the shortest government of the Fifth Republic, while continuing to influence transalpine politics heavily. Finally, in all likelihood, the leader of the post-Nazi right of the Fpö, Herbert Kickl, will also arrive at the chancellery in Vienna.

For the time being, the Populars answered Bardella’s call to arms in spades. But, as seen in the vote on deforestation, the EPP has already dropped the mask with respect to the ambitious climate goals that the EU has given itself over the past five years, under the impetus of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who hails from its own ranks. And that now, with the new Competitiveness Compass, it appears equally ready to “re-discuss” the path to carbon neutrality to meet the needs of business, under the banner of simplification, flexibility, and pragmatism.

It is certainly no mystery, after all, the intense flirtation that has been going on for months between the EPP and ECR, carried on as much by von der Leyen as by the head-boss of the Populars, Manfred Weber. Since before the European elections last June, the Christian Democrats had been open to cooperation with “the healthy elements” of the conservative family: that is, those who are pro-EU, loyal to NATO, and respectful of the rule of law.

Just as evident is the feeling between the Commission’s President and the Italian Prime Minister, who has seen her (hard) line on immigration finally make its way to Brussels. At this point, the question arises: how long will it take Meloni & co.’s