the extreme right is recomposing itself, German and Italian strategies

After the June 9 election, far-right groups are looking for allies in Brussels. The German AfD is struggling to form a group. In Italy, on the contrary, Giorgia Meloni’s training is said to be “unmissable”.

One of the lessons of the last European elections on June 9 is the progression of the far right in the European Parliament. Whilen France, the National Rally came first with 31.37% of the votes, far ahead of the majority party, negotiations between the different far-right groups are beginning in Brussels to form parliamentary groups by the end of June, the deadline set by the institutions.

The Correspondents’ Club first leaves for Germany, where the far right of the AfD beat the social democrats of the SPD, with 15.9% of the vote, compared to 13.9% for Olaf Sholz’s coalition, which suffers its worst result in a national election since 1949. Except that the AfD is in embarrassment, after the failure of negotiations on Wednesday June 12 with Marine le Pen, the spokesperson for the Identity and Democracy (ID) group remains closed to the German extreme right, considered inaccessible. Then we will go to Italy where the far-right formation, Fratelli d’Italia came well ahead, with almost 29% of the votes. Giorgia Meloni feels in a strong position to influence Brussels. She responds timidly to calls for union between her group of conservatives and that of the far right (ID), not wanting to weaken her relations with the European People’s Party (EPP, center right), which remains the main political force of the European Parliament, after this new election.

Germany: AfD could move towards more radical groups

The AfD, big winner of the German elections with more votes than Olaf Scholz’s SPD, and 15 seats in the European Parliament, is still looking for a parliamentary group. The German far-right party tried to plead its case in Brussels on Wednesday, during a meeting with Marine Le Pen, the head of the Italian League Matteo Salvini, the Dutch Geert Wilders and the head of the Austrian FPÖ Kickl. Kickl, who was to act as an intermediary, pleaded the AfD’s case. But Marine Le Pen remained intransigent, according to participants in this meeting. During the campaign for the legislative elections, she refused any reintegration of the German party, considered unsuitable because it was too extremist, within the ID parliamentary group.

The AfD has no choice but to find other partners. Officially, the party leadership does not allow itself to be dismantled. “We enter the negotiation phase very confident and relaxed. We will present our programmatic requirements and wait in a very relaxed manner for what will happen“, explain Alice Weidel, head of the AfD. But behind this façade of assurance, there is real concern. Because he has a lot of money at stake. According to the magazine’s calculations Der Spigel, the AfD would lose two million euros if it failed to integrate or form a parliamentary group by the end of June, the deadline set by the European institutions. Without a parliamentary group, AfD deputies would not be entitled to as much European funds for the operation of their offices as their colleagues integrated into a fraction.

Alice Weidel and her chief negotiator René Aust are on the phone all over the place with their “European friends“, as they say. These friends could be other far-right parties in the process of radicalization like the AfD. The birth of a third parliamentary group around common values ​​such as ultra-nationalism, pro- Russians and skepticism towards Europe is likely, according to political scientists. For example with the Renaissance Bulgarians, Polish deputies, Lithuanians, Our Fatherland in Hungary and the Slovak far right.

Italy: Giorgia Meloni needs tolerance from Brussels

The head of the Italian government keeps repeating that she is now “unavoidable“. While the European vote inflicted historic humiliation on the parties of Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, his far-right party, Fratelli d’Italia, came well ahead, coming close to 29% of the vote. Giorgia Meloni is thus the only leader of one of the major countries of the European Union to emerge strengthened.I am proud that our nation is going to the G7, in Europe, with the strongest government of all“, she immediately congratulated herself. If her victory further consolidates the credibility gained during her twenty months in power, it is above all the debacle of Emmanuel Macron which benefits her. The weakness of the president French, with whom she only had an understanding of reason, offers her a margin of maneuverwork inedited.

During the electoral campaign which has just ended, she advocated in Brussels what she succeeded in doing in Rome: a union of all the rights in the Parliament of Strasbourg to send the left back into opposition by excluding any participation in a majority with the socialists. However, it will have to use the pragmatism that characterizes it by taking note that, despite their strong push, the various far-right groups cannot overturn the balance of the Strasbourg Parliament. Giorgia Meloni will therefore not oppose the reappointment of Ursula Von der Leyen as head of the European Commission. Italy cannot afford to be isolated. It needs tolerance from Brussels regarding its national recovery plan, the new budgetary stability pact and even migration policy. Giorgia Meloni especially wants a important portfolio in the next Commission, that of Agriculture, Industry, Defense or even Energy for example.

Giorgia Meloni thus timidly responds to calls for union between her group of conservatives ECR and that of Identity and Democracy in which Marine Le Pen’s MEPs sit. Whoever the next tenant of Matignon is, it is always with Emmanuel Macron that she will have to deal during major European summits. Above all, she does not want to weaken her relations with the European People’s Party while her deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani categorically excludes any alliance, both with the Germans of the AfD and with the French of the National Rally.