Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) MEP Manon Aubry, the French co-chair of the Left Group said that Germany’s progressive parties endure significant responsibility for the historic wave in support for the far-right AfD in state elections in eastern Germany.
Manon Aubry blamed the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for “betraying its values [and] ambitions” since reaching power in 2021 in a coalition government with the Greens and Liberals (FDP). This, she expressed, paved the path for the party’s catastrophic performance in state elections in Thuringia and Saxony. The 161-year-old party garnered just 6.1% and 7.3% of the vote, respectively, with the Greens and FDP faring even worse.
How Is the Rise of the Far-Right Tied to Left-Wing Betrayal?
“Anytime that the left is betraying its values [and] its ambitions, it is installing the far right… And this is true in Germany,” Aubry expressed, adding that similar examples of this phenomenon can be found in Italy, Sweden, and Finland. By contrast, she stated, the unexpected success of the French left in July’s snap parliamentary elections indicates that “any time that the left stayed strong in its values, strong in its ambitions, we defeat the far right”.
“For me, it’s interesting to have a European angle on what’s going on in every single individual country because you can [identify] a trend,” Aubry expressed, adding that progressive forces in Spain have also successfully stymied the rise of the far right. It shows that the rise of the far-right is not inevitable. You can face it, and you can take it down.”
How Has the European Parliament Shifted Toward Right-Wing Forces?
Moreover, Aubry stated that she was “very afraid” of the potential political and economic fallout from the European Parliament’s sharp change to the right at the EU elections in June. She noted that the main purpose of the Left Group over the next five years will be to offer “resistance” to the Parliament’s coalescence of right-wing forces.
“No one could have guessed that we would have not one, not two, but three far-right groups,” she stated, referring to the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Patriots for Europe, and the AfD-led Sovereigntists. “It’s remarkable, the rise and the weight of the far right.”
Aubry advised fellow progressive groups, especially the Greens/EFA and Socialists & Democrats—both of whom backed EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s re-election—to abstain from collaborating with right-wing forces to pass free-trade agreements, impose austerity, or build “walls at the borders of the European Union.”
“It’s clear that the right wing will more and more cooperate with the far right. So there’s a question for the Socialists and the Greens: Will you cooperate with them? For us, the answer is clear and it’s no,” she stated.
“It’s not because it’s going to be more harmful in the next five years that the last five years were not a disaster,” she expressed. “We’ll [most likely] find a new word, unfortunately, to convey the next five years.”
