The Left group in the European Parliament has warned it is getting ready for a “fight for the soul of Europe.”
It says this comes with the new ‘Arizona’ government in Belgium, conservatives “cosying up to the AfD in Germany, and Meloni cracking down on the right to protest.”
The blunt message from the group is: “It’s no use talking about the ‘rise of the far-right’ anymore. They’re in power. It will require a mass movement to oppose them.”
In Belgium, the so-called ‘Arizona’ government has cautioned that it has pension rights and unemployment protections in its sights.
In Germany, the conservatives have reportedly allied with the extreme right AfD party sparking protests that brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets last week.
In Berlin alone, 250,000 made their voices heard “against collusion with fascist political parties.”
Meanwhile in Italy, a proposed Security Bill (Ddl Sicurezza) allegedly aims to clamp down on the right to protest.
This all comes, says the Left Group, with a European Parliament “that looks increasingly favourably on far-right policies.”
The Left’s response, say its MEPs, will be to “build its cooperation with actors outside of the traditional political arena and the EU political bubble – activist movements, Trade Unions, and civil society.”
In other words it is, it says, “to build a movement of ‘social resistance’ in Europe.”
The Left co-leader Martin Schirdewan (Die Linke, Germany) said
The alliance in Germany between conservatives and the far-right stinks of the darkest chapters of European history.
For the first time since World War II, the leader of the conservative party in Germany has attempted to push legislation through parliament with the support of an extreme-right party.
The people recognise a betrayal when they see one, which is why hundreds of thousands have turned out on the streets in Germany to fight against the far-right.
The MEP added,
We need to emulate these kind of mass movements across Europe with all social partners, everywhere the far-right tries to seize power.
The Left kicked off its own social resistance with a number of events in the last few days bringing together civil society and Left MEPs, “against the policies of far-right governments and the right wing in Europe.”
