Europe of Nations and Freedoms is the name of a new European Parliament bloc formed by far right and left deputies. It is Marine Le Pen, president of the French far right party National Front, who announced this at a press conference on June 16. It will be recalled that Le Pen is known for her links with Russia – a fact she does not exactly hides. In November 2014 the National Front received a $9-million loan at a Russian bank because EU banks refused to support French nationalists.
German MEP Herbert Reul thinks that the advent of Europe of Nations and Freedoms in the European Parliament is “a bad day for Europe.”
According to Politico.eu, Europe of Nations and Freedoms will have 36 MPs from far right parties. They have gone on record not only for opposing European integration and migration, but also for supporting Russia’s aggressive policy towards Ukraine. Among them are the UK Independence Party (UK), Jobbik (Hungary), the Party of Freedom (Netherlands), the Northern League (Italy), the Austrian Party of Freedom, and Flemish Interest (Belgium).
It is reported that the group of right-wing Euroskeptics is headed by Le Pen herself and Marcel De Graaff, a Dutchman.
The Wall Street Journal, a US publication, says the establishment of this bloc will allow Marine Le Pen to make a good platform before the French presidential elections in 2017.
Petras Austrevicius, a Lithuanian MEP, told The Day that Europe of Nations and Freedoms is “a totally unnecessary structure in the European Parliament which “nobody expected.” “There are no hopes that they will be a constructive group. On the contrary, they will be destructive, and the whole debate will boil down to their opposition to European integration. The fact that Ms. Le Pen recently visited Moscow in search of loans and even met some high-ranking Russian officials, after which this faction emerged, means one thing only: the money received in Moscow works. These loans are turning into political lobbyism. The emergence of this marginal political organization will not change our opinion about Le Pen and her friends. We will go on criticizing them and doing what we have done before. The voice of this faction will not be heard, and it will not represent the European Parliament,” Mr. Austrevicius said.
The Day asked Andreas UMLAND, a German political scientist, Associate Professor at the Political Science Department, Kyiv Mohyla Academy, to comment on the formation of a far right faction at the European Parliament.
“This faction was expected to be formed after the European Parliament elections past year, when far right and populist parties achieved an impressive success. While earlier it was a problem to find a sufficient number of MPs to form a faction, now Le Pen has managed to do so.
“This faction will increase the clout of pro-Putin right radicals in the European Parliament. They will have more resources to have an impact on it.
“Nevertheless, this small group will be thwarting EP efforts, as far as European integration, sanctions against Russia, or Ukraine’s EU membership is concerned. They will be trying to obstruct this. But I don’t think that they will succeed and that it is the reason why we should panic.
“The success of right radicals in the latest elections to the European Parliament is not the manifestation of these parties’ strength but the result of the mistakes of the main centrist parties which failed to explain to their voters the essence of the European project as well as the benefits and the purpose of European integration. A considerable success of the far right, especially in such countries as Great Britain, France, Denmark, and Hungary, results from the fact that the European project’s publicity has failed to work, even though the countries, where the far right won, are reaping a considerable benefit from European integration. Unfortunately, rank-and-file voters do not know or understand this so far.”
