Centrum-rechtse partij in Europees Parlement verwacht machtsbasis te kunnen handhaven (en)
EUOBSERVER / WARSAW – The EU's largest political family, the centre-right European People's Party, concluded its party congress in Warsaw confident of victory in the June elections and rubbishing the "dangerous recipes" of the left and nationalists during the economic crisis.
At the end of a two-day marathon of political speeches and backstage talks between EU heavyweights such as Angela Merkel i, Jose Manuel Barroso i and Silvio Berlusconi i, the EPP on Thursday (30 April) adopted its manifesto for the June elections.
Entitled "Strong for the People", the document sets out the broad strokes of their platform, to be fleshed out at the national-campaign level. The manifesto's backbone promotes a "social market" economy and offers support for the Lisbon Treaty, but also for green technologies and age-friendly employment.
At the same time, the manifesto denounces the solutions to the crisis proposed by the Socialists as an "age-old agenda of nationalisation, protectionism and permanent deficit spending," while nationalists are described as "using the crisis to advocate their well-known plans against a strong Europe."
"We have adopted a solid package of proposals to deal with the main challenges faced by our European society. I am convinced that the EPP will receive once again the confidence of the European citizens and remain the largest political force in the European Parliament after the June elections," said Wilfried Martens i, the president of the EPP, in his closing remarks.
According to various polls, the EPP is all but certain to retain its current majority in the European Parliament, with second place being awarded to the European Socialists (PES) group, which will allow them to hold on to many key positions in the EU institutions.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso already enjoys the endorsement of the EPP, as well as of some EU leaders from the left – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown i and Spanish premier Jose Rodriguez Zapatero.
The presidency of the European Parliament is also set to go to a centre-right MEP – either Polish former Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek i or Italian MEP Mario Mauro i. Socialist leader Martin Schulz is then set to take over the position for the second half of the five-year mandate, as part of an established tradition between the two mainstream parties.
This tradition is however currently being challenged by Graham Watson i, the leader of the Liberal group.
Russian spectre
The venue of the centre-right event where several speakers, including Polish anti-Communist icon Lech Walesa, blasted leftist ideology was the Palace of Culture and Science where Communist party congresses were held before 1989.
"We are meeting here in this building, symbol of the fall of the Communist most disgraceful days. Today we are turning this meeting place in to a new symbol - a symbol of hope for Europe," EPP secretary-general Antonio Lopez-Isturiz said in his remarks.
The departure from Communism, economic reforms, fight against corruption and organised crime, as well as "the return to Europe" were recurrent topics in speeches of leaders from Albania, Croatia, Georgia and Macedonia, all from parties with observer status within the EPP.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Belarussian opposition figure Alexander Milinkevich also talked about Russia's threat to the independence of their countries. "We were warned not to go back to Europe. We were warned they had hard power, while the EU only had soft power," Mr Saakashvili said, praising the ouverture of the EU towards his country via the Eastern Partnership.
Amongst the guests of honour, however, who were wearing "golden badges" granting them access to the front rows was also a member of Vladimir Putin i's party and chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian Duma, Konstantin Kosachev.
Mr Putin's United Russia is lobbying the EPP for observer status, as it claims to be of centre-right orientation, party sources told EUobserver.