In the aftermath of the attack on their MEP, the Party of European Socialists (PES) have promised voters they will not enter into a coalition or work with the far-right in the next European Parliament.
Leaders of national Socialist parties, who sit together in the Parliament with the Socialists & Democrats group (S&D), were meeting in Berlin on Saturday as news of the brutal assault on German MEP Matthias Ecke (SDP) by far-right activists in Dresden was announced.
Ecke had been putting up posters when he was confronted on Friday night by a group of 3 or 4 far-right activists who used homophobic slurs before physically assaulting him – leaving him with injuries which will require surgery. Olaf Scholz called the assault on his party colleague "a threat to democracy" when addressing the conference.
Yet, the debate on whether to work with the far-right after the 6-9 June elections has raged on prior to Friday night’s violence, given the widely anticipated right-wing surge in the European Parliament.
"We will never cooperate nor form a coalition with the far-right: this is the unshakable promise to voters that progressive political leaders made today in Berlin, Germany," the party said on Saturday.
In the press release, the centre-left group calls out far-right governments and their undermining of the rule of law, press freedom, workers’ rights as well as women's and LGBTQ+ rights. The S&D also cites how the far-right "spreads conspiracy theories, draws up deportation plans, and targets civil society, journalists, and trade unions" – as reasons for ordinary voters to oppose them.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and leading European People’s Party (EPP) candidate – despite not running for election as an MEP – has only ruled out working with the far-right group Identity and Democracy (ID), which includes the AFD, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Matteo Salvini’s Lega.
The German Christian democrat was ambiguous when it came to working with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which is led by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Fratelli d’Italia – where her government has seized control the public TV and is currently attacking women's right to abortion.
The European Socialists leadership stand with the Berlin Declaration. Credit: Party of European Socialists / Flickr
The Berlin Declaration was signed by all leaders of the socialist and social democratic parties in the European Union – including Belgium's French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) leader Paul Magnette, and Melissa Depraetere, the leader of the Flemish sister party Vooruit. In Belgium, a cordon sanitaire is in place since the 1980s around the far-right – which means parties will not go into government with the far-right Vlaams Belang, which is expected to hold in 2024 too.
The S&D's leading candidate, Nicolas Schmit (Luxembourg) took to the stage to denounce the rise of the far-right. "I am here because it was in this city that thousands of people came out to protest for democracy," he told the crowd. "Because ordinary citizens here in Germany and across our Union reject far-right politics. We are with those citizens. They can count on us to be a reliable and strong voice against right-wing extremism."
Stéphane Séjourné, head of the liberal Renew Europe group, also said back in January that he would not work with the far-right in the next European Parliament, while the Greens/EFA group have also ruled this out.
