21 November 2013

EV editorial: Fight the far-right with distinctions

Those who oppose the extremism of the far-right should not delude themselves that euro-enthusiasm is the only way of combating the unpalatable. Instead, they should be wary of sending those already disaffected with the EU into the arms of the far-right.

Guy Verhoftstadt, a former prime minister of Belgium, now leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe group in the European Parliament, has warned that in the next parliament, traditional party differences will be irrelevant. The Parliament would, he suggested, be split between eurosceptics and federalists. But politics both before and after May 2014 is more complicated than that.

Wilders and Le Pen will stage the occasional joint meeting. And Europe's main political families will try to put up cross-party candidates for the presidency of the European Commission. But for the most part voters will still make their choices in next May's elections according to national politics.

In some countries, that will mean making a choice between eurosceptic and euro-enthusiast candidates. In France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, for instance, eurosceptic parties will feature prominently in the campaigns and will perform strongly in the elections. But in other countries – for instance, Spain, Italy, Germany and Ireland – euroscepticism will be much less visible. In turn, that will mean that those elected to the Parliament will not necessarily have a clear mandate for scepticism or enthusiasm. To suggest otherwise is to do voters a disservice and serve the interests of either Le Pen or Verhofstadt.

Whatever Wilder and Le Pen might pretend, each far-right party is different and feeds off particular fears and ignorance in each national political culture. Combating the extreme right will require something more discerning than a blanket enthusiasm for the EU.

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