Two sources familiar with the talks told Euronews that EU liberals have no intention of expelling or voting to expel the Dutch VVD party despite its decision to form a four-way coalition with Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV party.
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Every MEP counts as Renew Europe battles the far-right ECR group to become the third largest force in the European Parliament for the next five-year term.
The European Parliament’s EU Freedom Party had planned to vote on whether to expel the Dutch VVD party on June 10, immediately after the election, but postponed the decision without setting a date last week after Renew Europe’s steep loss of 21 seats.
Instead, the group is likely to send observers to the Netherlands to make sure the party isn’t crossing any lines when it comes to values and liberal principles, but a formal decision on next steps is due to be made at the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) council meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, this weekend.
ALDE’s move – one of three political forces that make up the centrist Renew Europe group along with France Renaissance and the European Democrats – runs counter to a pledge made by its head, Valérie Heyer, from the French delegation, which suffered a heavy defeat to Marine Le Pen’s Rally National, winning just 13 MEPs (down from 23).
During the election campaign, Heyer signed a manifesto on behalf of Renew Europe in which leaders of the Social Democrats (S&D), the Greens and the Left Group agreed “to never cooperate or form coalitions at any level with far-right or radical parties.”
This promise was not negotiated within the party, but was made only by representatives of the group.
How did Renew Europe get here?
Last November, Dutch voters handed Wilders’ far-right party a victory in the general election with 23.5% of the vote.
After months of fruitless negotiations in the Netherlands, the National Democratic Party of the Netherlands (VVD), the party of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, announced it had reached a four-way coalition agreement with Geert Wilders’ far-right party PVV, the centre-right New Social Contract (NSC) and the populist Peasant and Civic Movement (BBB).
After the announcement, Heyer told French media that the VVD had distanced itself from the group’s values and that Renew Europe should decide together what to do next.
But an official motion to expel the Dutch party – as opposed to a petition to debate the issue – has never been submitted at ALDE and the party will not take such a “drastic decision” unless there is a criminal or official investigation, a party source told Euronews.
In June elections, Wilders’ party, the PVV, won six seats in the European Parliament.
The PVV joined the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group, which currently has 58 MEPs and has previously been barred from key parliamentary posts by the “cordon d’état”.
Negotiations on the final composition of the parliamentary group are still ongoing before the July 4 deadline, so the balance of power could still shift slightly.
