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The German Socialist Democratic Union (BSW) confirmed on Wednesday, July 3, that negotiations to form an alternative left-wing group in the European Parliament had failed, with the alliance’s main candidate, Fabio de Masi, blaming last-minute withdrawals and the “strong leverage” of the “majority group”.
The party was founded this spring by German MP Sahra Wagenknecht as a split from the German Left Party (BSW) Tell Euractiv said ahead of June’s European Parliament elections that it had enough support from other parties in the European Parliament to form a new parliamentary group.
information Appeared, However, earlier in the day, the Five Star Movement, long rumored to be involved in the negotiations, applied to join the existing left-wing group in the European Parliament.
De Massi, the leading candidate for the EU elections, confirmed in a statement late Wednesday that the BSW has “been working closely with the Italian Five Star Movement (in recent weeks) to create a new political grouping in the European Parliament”.
“We are very close to forming a new political system, 20 MEPs from six countries have expressed their interest,” he said.
However, despite last-minute interest from Left Party members, the new group ultimately fell short of the requirement of 23 MEPs from seven countries, De Massie admitted, describing what he called the drama of Tuesday night.
“On Tuesday evening (July 2), we received a last-minute request for talks from leftist parties who feel they are being marginalized because of their focus on peacekeeping, diplomacy and social justice. They are shocked that their parliamentary group will continue to lead the party despite the Left’s defeat at the election,” he wrote.
The Left Party confirmed on Wednesday that its leader Martin Hilderwand will continue as party leader. The Left Party saw its European Parliament seats reduced from five to three in June’s elections. The Left Party told Euractiv it would not comment.
However, last-minute talks finally broke down on Wednesday after an interested delegation decided not to join, De Masi told EuroEvent.
He believes the overall failure of the plan was not due to policy differences but negotiations over the division of competences and responsibilities, as BSW and its allies had to find new partners after pre-election seat projections were not met.
In his statement, he claimed that the Social Democrats were also involved in the negotiations and said that “the majority group has a strong influence and can bring critics of its backroom deals into Brussels through positions and money.”
He also denied rumor BSW tried to join the Left Party but was rejected.
The existing Left Group could become the largest left-wing political grouping among the Greens, as its numbers could increase to at least 47 MEPs if they accept the 8 MEPs from the Five Star Movement.
A decision on the Five Star Movement’s application is due tomorrow.
The Socialist Party of Britain’s six MEPs in its non-party delegation will lose political influence as the party fails to form a new group.
De Massie said the group would seek to “work closely with interested democratic parties or form a shadow parliamentary group” to offer an alternative to “the ‘status quo’ parties surrounding the European People’s Party, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Greens, all of which support Ms von der Leyen”.
He hopes that “our work will lay the foundation for us to establish our own group in the EU Parliament in the near future.”
(Editing by Rajnish Singh)
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