The two new far-right groups failed to clinch any of the fourteen vice-president positions.
Far-right candidates bidding to become vice-president of the European Parliament were voted down on Tuesday as part of centrist parties’ coordinated efforts to build a firewall against the radical right-wing.
While the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did manage to secure two vice-presidents – one more than in the previous mandate – the two newly-formed radical right-wing groupings were blocked.
It means neither Patriots for Europe, led by the French National Rally’s Jordan Bardella, or the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) of Alternative for Germany (AfD) will be represented in the European Parliament’s bureau, which shapes the parliament’s rules and budget.
It comes after a spokesperson from the EPP confirmed last week they were in last-ditch talks with other centrist groups to cordon off the radical right and the “friends of Putin” from positions of influence during the European Parliament’s tenth legislative term.
Patriots for Europe had fielded two candidates, former Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri from National Rally and Klára Dostálová of Czechia’s ANO party, formerly part of the liberal Renew Europe group.
The Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN), considered to be on the very fringes of the right wing, had presented Polish lawmaker Ewa Zajączkowska, who hails from the Confederation party.
A Patriots spokesperson slated the so-called cordon sanitaire designed to keep the far-right in check as “undemocratic” and an insult to “millions of European citizens that have the right to be heard.”
“I didn’t decide that the Patriots group is the third largest group in the European Parliament, but the voters decided it,” Paolo Borchia, a Patriots MEP hailing from Italy’s League, told Euronews. “Therefore the fact of going against the will of the Europeans, a will democratically expressed by millions of European voters, represents a huge assumption of responsibility, as well as a lack of respect.”
With fourteen vice-presidencies up for grabs, eleven were clinched in a first round of voting, five by the centre-left Socialists and Democrats, three by the European People’s Party (EPP), two by the liberal Renew Europe and one by the Greens group.
The two candidates pitched by ECR – Antonella Sberna of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party and Latvian lawmaker Roberts Zīle – were approved in the second round of the secret ballot, as was French MEP Younous Omarjee of the Left group.
German Green MEP Daniel Freund told Euronews that political parties that had campaigned on an anti-European platform should not hold positions of responsibility in the institution.
“If your political goal is to destroy this parliament, you should not be put in charge of managing this parliament. And that’s the reason why we apply the cordon sanitaire,” he said.