Push to ban EU left group over French riots
The vice chair of the European Parliament’s right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group began gathering signatures Friday to force a vote on asking the EU political-parties watchdog to investigate the European Left Alliance (ELA) for breaching EU values, according to an email seen by POLITICO.
The process could ultimately lead to the deregistration and loss of EU funding — effectively a ban — for the ELA. It’s home to Spain’s Podemos, Denmark’s Enhedslisten, Italy’s Left and Portugal’s Bloco de Esquerda. The vote would take place in the plenary session on Oct. 19.
Parliament should take action because the office of French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu accused ELA’s French member, La France Insoumise (LFI), of organizing school protests, some of which turned violent, ECR Vice Chair Charlie Weimers said. He needs 180 signatures from at least three political groups by Oct. 16, a threshold he could reach with support from right-wing and far-right lawmakers.
But the ELA has hit back. “Standing with young people asking for better education is not a breach of EU values,” said ELA Co-President Catarina Martins. “The ECR, whose own members regularly attack these very values, is abusing an EU procedure to try to avert attention from investigations of breaching EU values by the far- and extreme right.”
In France, Les Républicains leader and presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau on Thursday told BFM that the “question of banning LFI has arisen” following the riots, and referred to the party as “fascinated by violence.”
Once in plenary, the motion to start the process on ELA would need the support of the center-right European People’s Party for the motion to pass. The office of EPP chief Manfred Weber declined to comment.