The abandonment of the ECR by Vox, its entry into the group of 'Patriots for Europe' and its reasons

@ElentirENG ES 7·05·2024 · 20:12 0

On Tuesday I spoke to you here about the creation of "Patriots for Europe", a new right-wing group in the European Parliament.

'Patriots for Europe': the reason for a new right-wing group in the European Parliament
A European NGO points to Vox as the Spanish party that most opposes the Putin regime

Abascal announces that Vox joins the group of Patriots for Europe

I will not repeat here all the details of what I wrote in that article. If I mention it now it is because today, in an interview published by La Gaceta de la Iberosfera, Santiago Abascal, president of Vox, has announced that his party will join Patriots for Europe in this new term in the European Parliament.

In June 2019, Vox joined the ECR, the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists, of which the Polish party Law and Justice (PiS) and Fratelli d'Italia, the party of Giorgia Meloni, who have been two of Vox's main European allies in the last five years. Thus, Vox changes groups, a decision that Abascal justifies by stating that Patriots for Europe "tries to unite the greatest number of patriotic and sovereign forces. VOX has been working for a long time to the collaboration of all these forces, for the possible creation of a great group."

Vox will continue to have "a special relationship" with its Italian and Polish allies

Abascal has indicated that Vox will have "a special relationship, of course, with those allies who are not yet on this platform and with whom we continue to have a very close bilateral relationship". When asked if his change of group will mean a change in his relationship with Meloni or Morawiecki, Abascal declares:

"Nothing changes at all. The relationship with Fratelli is one of brotherhood, never better said. And with Georgia Meloni it is a very special, very close relationship. We have great admiration for what she is achieving in Italy And we have to say the same about our Polish colleagues who have just lost power at the hands of a coalition of popular and communists. Mr. Feijoo's partners in Poland govern with the communists to expel from power. a sovereigntist party that won the elections."

“Our role will always be a role of mortar, of trying to unite”

Regarding the role that Vox will play in relation to other related parties, such as those mentioned, Abascal comments the following:

"Our role will always be a role of mortar, of trying to unite, coordinate all those patriotic forces, whether they are in the group of which we are part or they are in other groups. That is what VOX can do better. It is what we have done best in these five years, what all our partners value, who have seen in VOX a bridge of collaboration."

On this same issue, Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch commented on Twitter:

"Giorgia Meloni is and will always be a friend, firm and strategic ally of Santiago Abascal and his party Fratelli d'Italia is a firm, strategic and permanent ally of VOX although now - who knows how long - we are in different groups in the European parliament."

This afternoon, in a Twitter message, Abascal published a photo of himself with Meloni, with this text:

"The simpletons, nor the manipulators, nor the opportunistic vultures make no mistake. The personal relationship with Giorgia Meloni goes far beyond daily and conjunctural politics. Because there is a personal, political and moral bond. And VOX's bilateral relationship with Fratelli D'Italia goes far beyond the groups in the European Parliament Because it is a common historical project that, with all allies, will rebuild Europe."

Patriots for Europe could become the third group in the European Parliament

These are Vox's arguments. In addition, yesterday Euronews pointed out one more possible reason for this movement: the probable disappearance of the group Identity and Democracy (ID), currently headed by the National Group of Marine Le Pen, since "no longer has the strength to constitute the European Parliament, since its members have been absorbed by the European Conservatives and Reformists or by the new Patriots group for Europe." Everything indicates that ID could join Patriots for Europe. If the latter is confirmed, Patriots for Europe would become the third group in the European Parliament (now the ECR), with more weight than the conservatives.

The new group could obtain two vice-presidencies and three commission presidencies

To this we must add a quite weighty parliamentary argument, noted yesterday by Euractiv:

"According to the D’Hondt method used to allocate internal jobs to groups according to their weight, a 95-seat-strong Patriots of Europe could nominate around two Parliament vice presidents and three committee chairmen. As committee chairmanships will be voted on by the absolute majority this month, the rest of the groups in Parliament can reach agreements to oust the far-right nominees – as has happened in the past. When it comes to vice-presidencies, it gets trickier and Orbán and Le Pen could actually make it."

Perhaps for these reasons, until a few days ago the Poles from PiS also considered joining Patriots for Europe, but in the end they opted for the ECR, probably because of his differences with Orbán over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which have cooled the relationship between PiS and its Hungarian Fidesz allies in the last two years.

The risks of the bet that Vox has made and the day chosen to announce it

Obviously, Vox's commitment to joining Patriots for Europe has risks. The first has to do with the nature of the three parties that have promoted this group: the Austrian FPÖ, the Czech ANO and Fidesz. These three founding parties of Patriots for Europe have in common their status as pro-Russian parties, while the ECR is a clearly Atlanticist group and critical of Putin.

I have been a Vox voter since the founding of that party and I have been denouncing Putin's lies, abuses and crimes for many years, and that is precisely what has disenchanted me the most today upon hearing the news of Putin's accession Vox Patriots for Europe. In fact, the day chosen to announce that decision could not have been worse, since today Orbán visited Putin, a gesture that has been criticized by Petr Fiala, prime minister of the Czech Republic and whose party belongs to the ECR.

If finally Patriots for Europe did not manage to unite a large number of right-wing parties, and ends up becoming a mere substitute for the Identity and Democracy group (plus Orbán and the Czechs of the ANO), Vox would be in a group in which it would not completely fit in, taking into account that it is the Spanish party that has voted against Russia the most times in the European Parliament, according to a report by a European NGO in the last legislature.

A vote of confidence and also a demand

As a Vox voter for ten years, I hope that this party continues to defend the cause of Ukraine and continues to oppose Putin as it has done until now. And when I say "I hope" what I express is, on the one hand, my vote of confidence in those who have been carrying out political work that seems admirable to me and with which I am fully in tune, but also my demand to remain faithful to their principles and consistent with the political line they have been defending, which with regard to the cause of Ukraine implies the defense of the independence and sovereignty of a European country attacked by Russia, which today is the main threat to peace in the West.

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Photo: Vox. Santiago Abascal, president of Vox, and Jorge Buxadé, MEP of that party, at the ECR Campus in September 2021.