The European Parliament Greens group is open to forming an “alternative majority” in the next European Parliament to prevent the hard-right “from gaining power”.
“We are determined to prevent the far-right from coming to power in Europe,” group Vice-President Marie Toussaint said on May 30.
With a potential surge of the hard right in the EP on the cards, Toussaint expressed her willingness to work with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in order to prevent her from joining up with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.
The French MEP envisions an alternate alliance made up of Von der Leyen’s European People’s Party, Renew, the Social Democrats (S&D), and the Greens after the European Parliament elections in June.
“If, on the evening of June 9, the hard-right is strong enough and there is a real risk that the current coalition will [ally] with the far-right and make a deal with them, then the [Greens] group would be open to a discussion for an alternative majority,” she said.
The European Conservative and Reformists group in the European Parliament has targeted China and the Green Deal in a roadmap for the next legislature of the European Union. https://t.co/oDqFtZAg48
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 24, 2024
The MEP accused the hard-right of pursuing an anti-environmental policy. The way to prevent that from becoming a reality was to form an “alternative alliance”, according to Toussaint
“The far-right has identified ecology as the enemy,” she said. “It’s the brown pact versus the green pact”, she added.
For Toussaint, the hard right exacerbated the “unravelling of the [European] Green Deal”.
She claimed that over the latest term of the European Parliament, the majority coalition gave in to pressure from lobbyists and the hard right.
As political dynamics in the European Union appear to be evolving, the 37-year-old French politician said she hoped that her alternative coalition could curtail what she called the abandonment of environmental policies.
Left-wing groups within the European Parliament are looking to “blackmail” rival right-wing groups with the Green Deal, a source within the body has said. https://t.co/qcDosoHoYn
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 23, 2024
“I observe and see the European right-wing and how it is retreating and aligning itself with the positions of the far-right,” Toussaint said.
“What’s at stake is whether the majority group [EPP] forms a coalition with the extreme right or not,” she added.
Her comments came with France’s Greens party currently polling at 5 per cent with just days to go to the EP elections.
With her proposal, Toussaint said she hoped that such a Green alliance could also appeal to as-yet undecided voters.
