Centre-right mulls 'grand alliance'

[sharmila banu.m]

 BRUSSELS: A day after victory in EU parliamentary polls, European conservatives yesterday sought a grand alliance with socialists and liberals to assure a second term for EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

"There needs to be a majority in the European parliament and, regardless of our success, no political group has an absolute majority, therefore we have to negotiate," said Wilfried Martens, president of the conservative European People's Party (EPP), the winning umbrella group of centre-right parties.

At a press conference the day after four days of EU parliamentary elections ended, Martens evoked the possibility of "cooperation" between the three main political families in the chamber, "the Christian Democrats of the EPP, but also the Social Democrats and the Liberals."

One of the first objectives of centre-right leaders is to secure the re-appointment of Barroso to a second five-year term at the head of the EU commission, the EU's executive arm.

They hope he will get the blessing of the 27 EU heads of state and government at a summit in Brussels on June 18-19.

The nomination of the former Portuguese prime minister could then be confirmed at the new EU parliament's inaugural session in Strasbourg in mid-July.

Martens said such "continuity" was necessary during the economic crisis even if a rapid nomination poses legal questions due to uncertainty over when the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty, which will change the institutional rules, will come into force.

Some European figures, notably French President Nicolas Sarkozy, believe the next commission chief cannot be named until Ireland has held its second referendum on the treaty in October.

Graham Watson, the British head of the European Liberals, who came third in the EU voting, did not reject the idea of cooperating with the conservatives but appeared to impose his own conditions.

"We must reflect on the wishes of those who went to the ballot boxes and gave us a European parliament with a centre-right majority," he said.

"I think the most logical conclusion would be a centre-right alliance to lead this parliament," he said, adding that he had already scheduled a meeting with EPP leaders.

Riding a wave of public concern over the effects of climate change, the Green-European Freedom Alliance bloc captured 53 of the EU parliament's 736 seats, compared with 43 spots in the last 785-seat assembly.

"To have increased our side with the parliament seats going down in number is a nice surprise," said Greens-EFA spokesman Chris Coakley.

Green candidates now account for 46 of their Green-EFA's seats, compared with 36 previously, according to the political bloc, which includes independents and members of smaller pro-EU national parties.

Right-wing success in the EU parliamentary election left European social democrats with an identity crisis yesterday, while the whole political spectrum rued the lowest ever voter turnout.

The humiliating defeat of centre-left parties in the election showed that their message should have connected with voters hurt by the recession, European papers said yesterday.

Left-wing parties in power in Britain, Spain and Portugal were punished by their electorates, while their allies in opposition in Germany and France suffered brutal losses.

"The traditional parties of the left should ask themselves why, in the midst of crisis, just when free market theories appear to be most challenged, people continue to prefer liberal recipes," Spain's El Mundo newspaper said.

Provisional vote figures showed the European People's Party, an umbrella group of conservative parties, remaining the largest bloc in the EU parliament with 265 of the 736 seats.

The Liberals also took a bashing, winning just 80 seats, while the Greens made gains with 51 seats.

Some commentators pointed to the ideological rift between traditional leftists and market-friendly Tony Blair-style social democrats, blamed in some circles for aiding and abetting the global recession.

Apathy was also a big winner, with just 42.94 percent of the 388 million eligible voters bothering to cast ballots in the world's biggest transnational elections.

One of the biggest losers was British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who saw his ruling Labour party relegated to third place nationally, behind the opposition Conservatives, and the fringe UK Independence Party, (UKIP) which wants Britain out of the EU.

Brown faces mounting pressure to quit amid parliamentary sleaze stories, cabinet resignations and a poor showing in local elections.

His precarious position is raising fears in Brussels and elsewhere over the fate of the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was much happier ahead of national elections in September, saying the strong showing of her conservative Christian Democrats meant that its national hopes "have grown clearly".

She described the increase in the vote of her party over the Social Democrats as "sensational" and said it boded well for her chances in the nation's general election.

Hardline nationalists and increasingly popular anti-EU parties such as UKIP will create a bigger and more worrying section of the European parliament.

Almost immediately after the results were announced the major groups organised meetings to discuss the possibility of a grand coalition of the pro-EU centre in the hopes of forming a parliamentary majority.

Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), fired a warning shot to "the elites of Europe" that the anti-Islamic platform, which catapulted him to the EU parliament, was something they "have to get their heads round".

The two seats won by the BNP represented the first parliamentary contests ever won by a far-right party in Britain and mirrored a trend seen in other parts of the continent.

British MEP Watson acknowledged that the far-right had tapped into public concerns that mainstream parties have been unable to address.

"I don't believe the far right will have a great influence on the policies of this house, but I regret the fact that disillusionment as a result of economic depression and a failure to integrate immigrants in our society has led to a rise for representatives of parties which preach hate and xenophobia,"he said.

Despite differences on the economic crisis, centre-right and centre-left parties across the continent share fundamental consensus on the need for a capitalist system with strong social welfare protections. And the centre-right still favours spending more than Europe's free-market Liberal Democrats or many conservatives in the US.

The EU parliament has evolved over five decades from a consultative legislature to one with the power to vote on or amend two-thirds of all EU laws, including on issues ranging from climate change to cell-phone roaming charges.

Budget

The parliament can also amend the EU budget, $170 billion (BD64,082,117,754) this year, and approves candidates for the European Commission, the EU administration and the board of the European Central Bank.

Austria's big winner was the rightist Freedom Party, which more than doubled its strength over the 2004 elections to 13.1 per cent of the vote.

It campaigned on an anti-Islam platform.

Three of 22 seats in Hungary went to the far-right Jobbik party, which describes itself as Euro-sceptic and anti-immigration.



SOURCE - GULF DAILY NEWS
DATE - 09.06.09