The European Popular Party would impose on the Vox Group a sanitary cordon that it does not have in Spain

The cordon sanitaire will be applied to Vox in the European Parliament. This is one of the consequences of the decision by Santiago Abascal’s party to leave the Reformists and Conservatives (ECR) group, which in the previous legislature was part of other far-right parties, such as Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia or the Polish ultranationalists Law and Justice (PiS), to go to the even more radical Patriots for Europe, made up of Marine Le Pen’s National Rassemblement, Matteo Salvini’s La Liga, or Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, among others.

The European People’s Party will maintain a ring for the group that is made up of “extreme right-wing MEPs and friends of Putin” and this, however, does not apply to the ECR, with which it negotiates bilaterally on distribution. For example, the presidency of the Commission. In fact, the ECR aspires to the presidency of the Agriculture Commission, one of its priorities given the protests of farmers across the continent.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s European Family would therefore veto the Vox group, which does not impose itself on the formation of Abascal in Spain, where the PP has maintained pacts at the municipal level despite the breakup of several autonomous governments and has also retained councillors who have rebelled against the Vox leadership.

What does cordon sanitaire mean in the European Parliament? The negotiations that the populists, socialists and liberals are carrying out regarding the composition of the European Parliament are aimed at keeping extremist forces out of representative positions in the vote to be held this Tuesday. The groups that would be left out are Patriots for Europe, which is the third parliamentary force, and Europe of Sovereign Nations – the group that formed Alternative for Germany after its break with Le Pen and Salvini, as well as other ultra groups. The negotiations were conducted by agitator Luis ‘Alviz’ Pérez, who is one of those still unregistered.

“We are in discussions with the Socialists and Renew to implement the cordon sanitaire for MEPs proposed by far-right and Putin-friendly groups. The reason is that they are elected positions in parliament (…) and we don’t want these MEPs to represent the institution,” EPP communications director Pedro López de Pablo told a press conference.

There is internal fighting in the mix of far-right parties and, in fact, they have split into three in the European Parliament, where they have achieved a greater representation than ever before with 187 representatives out of 720 seats. The main differences relate to their ultranationalist approach and ego problems when assuming leadership, but there are also some ideological nuances. Le Pen has ties to Putin, while others such as PiS are characterized by, for example, a staunch defense of NATO, and this makes them largely incompatible.

The ECR, however, was against the imposition of a sanitary cordon on Patriotas por Europa, which followed the D’Hont system governing the distribution of institutional positions, guaranteeing seats as a third force if it was not vetoed. The spokesman for Patriots for Europe assured, on his part, that this was an “undemocratic cordon system”. He complained, “We represent millions of citizens who have the right to be heard.”

For her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also excluded these two extreme groups from her talks to garner support for a second term, while this Tuesday she will meet with the ECR group. The commitment that von der Leyen has made is to seek that support, but not to reach a “cooperation agreement” with the structures involved and that would complicate the coalition with the Social Democrats and Liberals, who are part of the coalition at European level with the PPE.

However, von der Leyen has maintained more dialogue with the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who left the door open for Fratelli d’Italia to support her in the European Parliament by abstaining from the vote in the European Council (while they voted for Antonio Costa as President of the European Council and against Kaja Kallas as High Representative), and also with the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, who has publicly declared his support and offered to help von der Leyen within the ECR, a group to which the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) belongs.

In a bid to reach the 361 votes needed to be re-elected to the European Parliament, von der Leyen has stepped up talks with the Greens, who have shown themselves willing to lend their support.