EU Christian Democrats to David Cameron: apologise for your silliness, young man, and we might just let you back
Apr 13th 2010, 9:37 by Charlemagne
REGULAR readers will know that I think Britain's Conservatives made a mistake when they pulled their Euro-troops out of the largest centre-right group in the European Parliament, the European People's Party. Despite its Che Guevara name, this is an alliance of the continent's largest Christian Democrat and conservative parties, 13 of whom are currently in government, 14 assuming a right-wing win in the second round of the Hungarian elections.
I think the Tories lost influence by walking away from a group that includes not just the ruling parties of France, Germany and Italy, but also parties which are probably closest in world view to the leadership group of David Cameron, notably the ruling Moderates in Sweden. I think David Cameron offered to leave the EPP as a sop to the right of his party at a particular moment in his campaign to become party leader, under the misapprehension that all sorts of ideologically appealing partners would flock to his side in a new group. But I think he was being advised by colleagues who have a very different view of what makes an ideologically appealing partner. Thus they could see nothing very wrong with joining Law and Justice from Poland, despite members of that party with a record of nasty comments about gay rights and (in their youth) confused positions on the Holocaust. Indeed some Conservative MEPs involved in the hunt for new allies were keen to invite the People's Party from Denmark to join.
I wrote this after the last Euro-election, and stand by it:
"Mr Cameron has managed to avoid the extreme right, but he has broken with large mainstream parties.
In Poland, the governing centre-right party is the Civic Platform. To the far right sit fringe politicians with openly anti-Semitic views. Mr Cameron’s allies are in the middle, with wrong-headed opinions on gays and capital punishment. In Belgium, the Christian Democrats belong to the EPP. Mr Cameron has nothing to do with the anti-immigrant parties on the far right, but his allies are from the Lijst Dedecker, a populist outfit that wants independence for Dutch-speaking Flanders. In the Netherlands too, the largest party, the Christian Democrats, is in the EPP. Mr Cameron has eschewed the anti-Islamist Geert Wilders but his partners are from the tiny Christian Union, which favours government guided by biblical commandments. And the Tories’ sole Latvian chum is a mild-mannered economist, a wing of whose party annually honours Latvians who fought with the Waffen SS against Soviet forces.
Mr Cameron’s real problem is structural. Europe makes even centrist voters cross in Britain, yet centrists on the continent are overwhelmingly pro-EU. So to find allies who share their Euroscepticism, Tories have to seek out populists and angry nationalists. Mr Cameron’s new band of allies may be a symptom of Britain’s strained relationship with Europe rather than a solution to it."
So all in all, it is quite a surprise for me this morning to find myself, for the first time, in grudging sympathy with Mr Cameron in his rejection of the EPP. I have always found continental Christian Democrats slightly hard to love, to be honest. The EPP is a very broad church, whose French or Greek members are far to the left of the British Labour party when it comes to economic liberalism and globalisation, and whose Spanish and Italian members include some social conservatives whose views I find pretty repellent. Most of all, it is a power cartel, and it shows. The EPP holds party summits in castles, palaces and the like, and loves all that folderol of limousines crunching up gravel drives to drop off powerful men and women. EPP views on Europe are often the epitome of smug complacency: aren't we marvellous in Europe, and aren't the Americans rather ghastly etc etc.
And this morning? Well the press carries reports of a briefing by the secretary general of the EPP, Antonio López-Istúriz, graciously inviting Mr Cameron to accept the error of his ways and return to the EPP after the British elections, on condition that the Conservatives understand that they can only enter on the EPP's terms, and must sign up to all the EPP's values (which would, for example, involve the Tories dropping their previous opposition to the Lisbon Treaty). By way of incentive, Mr López-Istúriz noted that the new group formed by the Conservatives, the ECR, was full of "exotic" parties that were damaging their reputation, and was likely to break up for lack of members.
According to the Times:
Mr López-Istúriz said he expected Mr Cameron’s group to disintegrate, pointing to the failure of his Hungarian partners to win any MPs in that country’s elections on Sunday. He said Dan Hannan, an outspoken Tory MEP and supporter of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, had too much influence.
Mr Cameron is keen to keep Europe off the election agenda but opponents rarely miss a chance to highlight the homophobic views of the Tories’ Polish partners.
“We want David Cameron to win these elections,” Mr López-Istúriz said. “I believe that he will make a pragmatic choice after the elections [to return to the EPP]. I do not understand how European affairs can be left to people like Dan Hannan. He was the character behind this exotic group they have built in the European Parliament."
I have known Dan Hannan for years, and we disagree about a great deal. He is a supporter of withdrawal from the EU, for one thing, and we have clashed several times in public debates. But there is no denying he has a big following among the Tory grassroots, thanks to endless speaking gigs at constituency dinners up and down the country, a blog and high-profile speaking slots at party conferences. He had a public run-in a while ago with one of the biggest grandees in the EPP, Hans-Gert Pöttering, which I for one always thought looked a bit staged. Anyway, it got Mr Hannan expelled from the EPP which suited him down to the ground.
According to New Europe, a weekly published in Brussels, Mr Hannan's presence in the Tories might be an issue still.
Lopez-Isturiz said the EPP wanted a Conservative victory in the British general election on 6 May, and that he expected conservative leader, David Cameron to "be pragmatic" and apply to rejoin their group. However, he said that they would have to reapply and there was no chance that they would be able to negotiate, saying, that they would have to join on the EPP terms and sign up to the group's values and programme. An application to join, "would not be an easy dossier" for the party and he mentioned remarks by Hannan towards Hans Gert-Pottering, who is "not happy to have Hannan around".
The two pieces I have quoted were sent to me this morning by a kindly EPP press officer (I am in Paris today). In the interest of candour, here is my full email reply to that press officer:
You know I thought the Tory breakaway was a mistake. And I don't rule out the ECR could fall apart, but if the EPP thinks it is clever politics to criticise the Tories before an election while announcing they might be allowed to rejoin the EPP on terms set by a magnanimous EPP (including the ditching of a grassroots favourite, Hannan, at the request of a German grandee) then the EPP secretary general should find another line of work.
Re: Dawn of a new EU - European Conservatives and Reformists Group springs into life
Originally Posted by Furunculus
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