BERLIN:
Right-wing populist parties are gearing up to campaign for European Parliament
elections next month, but policy differences and the Brexit drama threaten
their dream to "unite the right". Many fear the May 26 vote will be a
wake-up call for Brussels on the reality that Europe's anti-immigration and
blood-and-soil patriotic forces have moved from the fringes to the mainstream.

Once considered outsiders, they could now end up with one fifth or more of the
seats, allowing them to shift the tone of political discourse and make a claim
for legitimacy. Key players are Marine Le Pen's National Rally (NR) in France
and the Italian League of Matteo Salvini, who is hosting a meeting of like-minded
right-wing groups in Milan on Monday. In the EU's top economy, the Alternative
for Germany (AfD) has become the biggest opposition party by railing against
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her 2015 decision to allow a mass influx of asylum
seekers.

Yesterday the AfD gathered in the city of Offenburg to present its election
program, which calls for "a Europe of fatherlands" and opposes the
EU's immigration, financial and climate policies. On Monday in Milan, Italian
deputy PM Salvini will follow up and gather allies from across Europe to try to
lay the foundations for a future hard-right grouping in the now 751-member
European Parliament. Salvini and Le Pen also agreed to call another meeting in
May, after they met in Paris on Friday, a NR source said. "The leaders are
considering a common manifesto to close the electoral campaign and announce the
start of a new Europe," said a spokesman for Salvini.

International of nationalists?

So far, Europe's right-wing nationalists have been divided into three blocs and
a tangled web of alliances in the legislature that moves between seats in
Brussels and the French city of Strasbourg. They are the Europe of Nations and
Freedom (ENF) group, which includes the RN and League, the European
Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Europe of Freedom and Direct
Democracy (EFDD).

The dream of Salvini - and of Steve Bannon, the former advisor to US President
Donald Trump - has been to unite the disparate patriotic forces and form an
"international of nationalists". But so far such efforts have met
with only limited success, in part because the parties' nationalist focus runs
counter to a multi-national approach. Another problem for the groups has been
that, despite their shared dislike for immigration, multiculturalism, the left
and the EU, they remain divided on other key issues.

On economic policy, the AfD and their Scandinavian allies tend to believe in
the market economy, while the French RN favors a more protectionist and statist
approach. While Italy's League, Poland's PiS and Hungary's Fidesz highlight
Europe's Christian cultural roots, the RN has shied away from taking a similar
stance in a country where the majority is in favor of secularism. And even on
immigration, Salvini's League favors an EU-wide redistribution of asylum
seekers while others demand an outright stop to immigration. On relations with
Russia, Salvini has praised President Vladimir Putin, a view not shared by
Poland's governing party.

'Patriotic alliance'?

The AfD's top candidate Joerg Meuthen said he expects big gains for nationalist
parties but that they will have trouble forming a "patriotic
alliance" with a common agenda. The parties "have the same or similar
positions on migration policy but very different views in other areas," he
told AFP. There are also strategic deliberations. Hungary's Prime Minister
Viktor Orban has voiced admiration for Salvini but was considered unlikely to
come to the Milan meeting given his Fidesz party still belongs to the
centre-right European People's party (EPP) group, despite its temporary
suspension.

Meanwhile, most parties have also toned down their anti-EU rhetoric as the
Brexit debacle has made the prospect of leaving the bloc look far less
appealing. Le Pen renounced a "Frexit" after the 2017 presidential
election and her disastrous debates against Emmanuel Macron, while Germany's
AfD has downgraded a "Dexit" scenario to a "last resort".
Still, the potential of the far-right must not be underestimated, said Sven
Hutten, political scientist at Berlin's Free University. He warned that such
groups target "15 to 30 percent of the population" and that at the
moment "the populist right is fighting for unity and to build a single
bloc".- AFP