‘Questions about formation with Wilders’

• Roemer Ockhuijsen

  editor Nieuwsuur

• 

  Evert-Jan Offringa

  reporter Nieuwsuur

If BBB and NSC get seats in the European parliamentary elections, they would like to join the largest group in the European Parliament: the European People’s Party (EPP). But in that faction, the potential cooperation of BBB and NSC with the PVV is a sensitive issue.

The EPP is the Christian Democratic power bloc in the European Parliament. With 177 seats it is the largest faction. The CDA and the Christian Union are currently part of it from the Netherlands.

Geert Wilders’ party is part of another faction in the European Parliament, Identity and Democracy (ID). This includes radical right parties such as Alternative für Deutschland and Rassemblement National, the French party of Marine le Pen. The PVV currently has no seats in the European Parliament, but is a member of ID.

And it is precisely this ID faction that Ursula von der Leyen, the current President of the European Commission and party leader of the EPP, has lately been making strident statements. She fears that the parties within that faction want to destroy the European Union from within with “disinformation and polarization”.

In March, Von der Leyen said in a speech at the EPP Congress on, among others, Alternative for Germany and Rassemblement National: “Let there be no doubt about what is at stake in these elections. Our peaceful and united Europe is being challenged more than ever by populists, nationalists and demagogues, whether they are on the far right or on the far left.”

Political parties unite within the European Parliament into factions based on their political ideas. “You are stronger in such a group,” explains MEP Anja Haga (Christian Union). Parties within a faction also determine a joint position during votes. “If you are not a member of a group, you cannot actually do your substantive work here.”

This does not mean that all parliamentarians within a group always vote the same. Party discipline at European level is much less strict than in the House of Representatives. But if you want to deviate from a sensitive topic, you should discuss it with each other in advance, says Haga. For example, she herself voted in favor of the Nature Restoration Act, while the majority of the EPP faction was against. “Those 177 MEPs really don’t all have the same views.”

It is not entirely surprising that BBB and NSC want to join the EPP. Their party leaders for the European elections both have a CDA past and know Europe and the EPP well. BBB party leader Sander Smit was a policy officer for a CDA MEP for many years, and NSC party leader Dirk Gotink also worked for the CDA in Brussels. Two months ago he switched to NSC.

The short lines of communication that BBB and NSC therefore have with the EPP faction do not mean that the accession of either party is a done deal. Smit and Gotink’s former employer, the CDA, will soon have influence on the decision whether or not BBB and NSC may join the faction. As a member of the EPP party, the CDA can provide compelling advice to the top of the party.

Tom Berendsen, the European party leader of the CDA, does not want to say much about how his party will advise. He does think that the two parties fit in well with the faction. “Right now I think there are more similarities than differences.”

But according to Berendsen, there are not only questions within the EPP about possible cooperation between NSC, BBB and PVV. “Our group leader Manfred Weber has always said: parties that join the EPP must be pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law. It is up to them to answer those questions.”

Gotink (NSC) and Smit (BBB) ​​are not very concerned. “I think there are questions, but that coalition of PVV, NSC, BBB and VVD is not there yet,” says Gotink. “Brussels is not going to answer if-then questions. They want to know what will or will not happen legally. Which laws will or will not be amended.”

As far as Smit is concerned, the EPP will even collaborate with the PVV in Europe and with the ID faction: “We as BBB are very pragmatic about this. Of course we have to listen to the ID faction and to the signal that voters send, also in the Netherlands , when it comes to the failed migration policy.” Gotink is more cautious about collaboration with the ID faction: “I don’t think that will happen in a European context.”

After the European elections, EPP politicians will vote on the admission of NSC and BBB. At least two-thirds of the group must agree.