Born from the Tories’ internal struggle over the EU, the right-wing group of MEPs founded by David Cameron faces relegation to the fringes of the European Parliament after Brexit.
But the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) have a cunning plan.
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Instead of giving up the ghost when their 19 Conservative MEPs head back over the Channel in a year’s time, the ECR will attempt to rebrand as a home for Euro-critical lawmakers who shun the methods of the far right.
For a group that will be relegated in one fell swoop from the third biggest political family in the Parliament to the fifth slot, with 52 seats, that’s quite an ambition. Especially since the group is currently too populist for the taste of some moderate conservatives.
Loosely bound by their belief in open markets, lower taxes, family values, the transatlantic alliance and reform of the EU, the ECR’s 18 national delegations range from mainstream forces like the Tories to Belgium’s largest party, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), and the anti-immigrant Finns party.
The Tory MEPs Richard Ashworth and Julie Girling, left the group a fortnight ago. Girling argued that as a moderate Conservative who campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum on EU membership, she didn’t feel comfortable in the ECR. She and Ashworth have joined the European People’s Party, home to mainstream center-right forces like Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
“We do not belong in a far-right, populist, nationalist party,” Girling told Euractiv. She and Ashworth had the Tory party whip removed last year for their anti-Brexit stance. News they were leaving the ECR met a standing ovation from colleagues eager to show them the door, according to MEPs present at the meeting.
To avoid becoming an irrelevant hodge-podge of anti-EU voices after Brexit, some members of the group hope to transform it into the pre-eminent Euro-critical voice in the Parliament after the 2019 election, by attracting people who oppose more power for Brussels while rejecting the approach of extremist parties.
“Today, you have Euro-federalists on one hand and Le Pen and Wilders on the other,” said Jan Zahradil, a Czech member of the ECR, referring to France’s National Front leader Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, the leader of the anti-Muslim Dutch Freedom Party. “There is a need for some common sense voice.”
Challenging behavior
The recent history of the ECR isn’t necessarily overflowing with common sense.
Founded after the European election in 20o9, when then Tory leader Cameron decided to break with the EPP in a sop to the Euroskeptics in his ranks and form a new group, the ECR’s image has suffered from internal scandals and the confrontational or extremist behavior of some of its national member parties.
Its second largest member, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), is in open warfare with the European Commission (and its domestic arch-enemy Donald Tusk, head of the European Council) over Brussels’ criticisms of Polish judicial reforms. That means many ECR lawmakers voted against the Parliament’s resolution on triggering Article 7.1 against Poland for breaching EU values.
While ECR lawmakers often vote with the EPP, the Tories’ influence means it has broken ranks with mainstream MEPs on Brexit, too: In 2017, the ECR issued its own guidelines on Brexit, saying the Parliament’s draft position “undermines the unity of the 27.”
In 2014, the ECR admitted new partners like the populist Danish People’s Party and the True Finns (which has since changed its name to the Finns) — new recruits who have brought their own problems. Danish People’s Party MEP Morten Messerschmidt has been accused of misuse of EU funds. And Jussi Halla-aho of the Finns has a conviction for posting a blog that said Islam “reveres pedophilia.”
Finally, PiS MEP Ryszard Czarnecki was removed from his position as Parliament vice president last month after he sparked outrage by comparing a fellow Polish MEP to a Nazi collaborator.
‘Little earthquake’
Scandal notwithstanding, some ECR luminaries hope to turn the group into a credible anti-federalist voice untainted by association with fundamentalist Euroskeptics.
“We like the EU but we hate the United States of Europe,” said Hans-Olaf Henkel, an MEP and business leader who left the Alternative for Germany (AfD) when its focus strayed from criticism of the euro to far-right populism (the party is no longer in the ECR). “We like the Europe which was designed by Charles de Gaulle: the Europe of nations.”
Zahradil, the Czech MEP, said he hopes the ECR can also benefit from what he predicts will be a “little earthquake” in the 2019 European election.
In this scenario, the Socialists (the second-largest group of MEPs), humbled in the French, German and Italian elections, would see their votes shrink; two hard-line Euroskeptic forces — Nigel Farage’s Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy and the Europe of Nations and Freedom — would contract; and France’s Emmanuel Macron would manage to unite pro-European liberals in the Parliament.
This upheaval, Zahradil said, will push Euro-critical parties into the arms of the ECR. Some members eye alliances with parties to the right like Austria’s Freedom Party and Hungary’s Fidesz, while Henkel said he has met with Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, whose party Debout la France also advocates a Europe of nations.
Zdzisław Krasnodębski, a Polish member who emphasizes “Christian values” and power for member states, sees potential recruits among “moderate Euro-realistic groups” and even hopes to poach from the EPP.
Overall, concluded his colleague Zahradil, “prospects are quite good.”