Are EU liberals still progressive and pro-European? Dear readers,
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In today’s edition Are European liberals still progressive and pro-European? Being supported by a political party does not mean representing it Wilders’ fate might anticipate post-EU election discussions One of the leaders of the liberals in the EU election campaign will be German defence expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, whose party in Germany has been obstructing significant legislative proposals related to business and the Green Deal in recent weeks. The somewhat unusual choice puts into question the liberals’ overall strategy and future politics, at a time when polls project a weaker showing for the liberal centrists in June’s EU elections. ALDE – the largest political family in the liberal Renew Group in the European Parliament – picked the German defence policy expert to represent them in the campaign, alongside two other liberal figures. In recent weeks, Strack-Zimmermann’s party in Berlin, the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), has been at the forefront of obstructing legislative proposals related to business and the Green Deal, such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (ECSDDD), the Platform Workers Directive, and the Nature Restoration law. More concretely, the German media outlet Handelsblatt wrote last month that the FDP has the intention to block almost 14 legislative EU files before the end of the mandate. Why does a party holding merely 3-5% of public support in Germany wield such considerable influence? The reason lies in its role as a minority party within the German government coalition, which operates under a rule that mandates unanimity for any kind of decision on EU policies. German liberals’ behaviour appears to have been prized by the European family ALDE, in giving it an EU leading candidate, denying the family’s more federalist and progressive nature (supporting files endorsed by the European Parliament majority, for instance) that is traditionally at the core of the liberals. Perhaps it was due to major leadership problems that all parties are experiencing, or it was a way to give more space to more prominent political figures in the liberal group, such as the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who had proposed herself as the lead candidate, before stepping back.
This issue opens a major question about what it means to be a pro-European leader: French and German governments have always been perceived as pro-European countries, in contrast to Eastern countries or the “enemy of the enemies”, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. But can leaders blocking EU legislation to defend national and electoral interests be defined as pro-European and progressive? And will it work to charm voters in June? | 