Hitler serves as a warning: European People's Party under criticism for rapprochement with the far right
Kyiv • UNN
The European People's Party is criticized for its rightward shift after the elections. Party leader Manfred Weber emphasizes the importance of avoiding the mistakes of the past, such as Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The politician is seeking cooperation with centrist political forces.
The head of the European People's Party, Manfred Weber, promises to find a balance, which can be helped by cooperation with centrist parties. UNN reports with reference to Рolitico.
Details
Manfred Weber claims that the European People's Party (EPP) has a huge mandate to implement right-wing programs. However, the EPP should do this without making the same mistakes that the German conservatives made in the 1930s, when they allowed Adolf Hitler to come to power.
"Bearing in mind my German history with Weimar and the Nazi regime, the real historical mistake was giving executive power to far-right politicians, and that is a red line for us," he said.
The EPP is home to heavyweights such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Since the June elections last year, it controls the main EU institutions – the Commission, the Parliament and the Council – and thus controls a number of decisions.
But critical remarks have been traced towards the EPP for a long time. Socialists, liberals and "greens" point to the slope of this political force to the right - in politics, as well as in rhetoric - especially after the parliamentary elections that took place in June last year.
But the representative of the party leader and the Christian Social Union (the Bavarian sister party of Merz's CDU), recalled that the election results occurred after a surge of far-right forces. Weber noted that the 2024 elections gave the EPP the largest number of MEPs, - this trend signals that citizens want radical right-wing answers to their problems.
Weber believes that in key issues such as defense, foreign policy and the budget, "there is no way to achieve anything... to develop Europe together with the far right." The ideal scenario, according to Manfred Weber, is to cooperate with centrist parties.
Let us remind you
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