Everyone should be concerned about possible cooperation with Meloni, says Finnish candidate – Europe live | Europe

Why are Green parties polling badly for the European elections?

Ajit Niranjan

Voters may deal Green parties a blow that costs them up to one-third of their seats, if polls before this week’s European elections prove correct, in a shift that could lead to a rollback of climate policies with the effects rippling far beyond the continent.

At first glance, the projected slump in support – which follows months of protests from farmers against environmental rules – reads like a backlash against climate policies set by politicians who tried to move too far, too fast.

But political scientists are unconvinced by that narrative. There is little data to support fears of a societal “greenlash” from voters unhappy with the costs of the transition, according to the authors of a recent survey of 15,000 voters in France, Germany and Poland.

While local evidence from the Netherlands shows how a specific climate policy can push people away from the Greens and towards the far right, on a broader level researchers have found support for climate policies falls mostly along ideological lines.

So what explains the poor polling numbers?

The most straightforward explanation is that the last European elections in 2019 may have been an outlier in terms of climate engagement – one that served Green parties particularly well.

Read the full analysis here.

Out on the campaign trail in Finland, “security matters” and “our eastern border” are being raised across the country, said Ted Apter, a candidate for the centre-right National Coalition party.

In a phone interview, Apter said security has been “a key topic to talk about, and also, just getting assurances that Finland is prepared for any possible situation.”

“The other topic has been quite a lot about, can we have more growth both in Finland and the European Union?” he said.

Asked about what he believes should be the next European parliament’s priorities, he said “the first focus of course should be to help Ukraine win its war” and then “continue with rebuilding Ukraine and also open up for enlargements.”

“After supporting Ukraine, it’s mostly about competitiveness and how we, for instance, change the trajectory of technological advancements,” the Finnish candidate said, underscoring that “we’re lagging behind China and the US in several key technologies.”

“What we need to do is to pool resources and do more on the European level, to put up new funding elements, which then could be given to projects that would be quality criteria based, instead of which are the biggest countries or which are the poorest countries,” he added.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission and lead candidate of the centre-right European People’s party, campaigned in Finland today.

Asked about an ongoing debate in Brussels about the centre-right will open up to cooperating with parties such as Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, the Finnish Social Democratic party’s Maria Guzenina said “this is a concern everybody should share, even within the EPP – this is a potential hazard.”

“I think it would be a mistake” to bring Meloni into the centre, she stressed, arguing that the Finnish centre-right’s work with the far-right Finns party led to a “shift ignoring the green deal” and undermined Finland’s economic strength. “These should be alarm bells,” she said.

Maria Guzenina, a well-known figure in Finland and candidate in the European elections for the Finnish Social Democratic party, said “people are quite worried about the far-right and far-left” in Europe.

“They’re worried that in those groups there are people who sympathise with Russia,” she said, adding that there is also a concern that some members of these parties don’t support green policies.

Finnish voters are also aware of competition with the US and China, she said.

Asked about priorities for the next European parliament, Guzenina pointed to the EU’s finances and enlargement policies.

The way the EU allocates its budget “should be carefully evaluated,” she said, noting that it would be “probably difficult” to ask for member states to boost financial contributions and calling for prioritising the European Green Deal.

Let’s shift to Finland, where voters will elect 15 members of the European parliament on Sunday.

We’ll hear from two candidates: one representing Finland’s Social Democratic party and one from the centre-right National Coalition party (Kokoomus).

Opinion polls put the Social Democrats slightly ahead of the National Coalition party.

Lisa O’Carroll

An EU commissioner has launched a scathing attack on Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president who is seeking a second term, branding her leadership style “unacceptable”.

Nicolas Schmit, the lead candidate for the socialist bloc in this week’s European parliamentary elections, lifted the lid on the behind-the-scenes deal she had hashed out with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni over migration from Tunisia last summer.

The deal, which offered money to Tunis, in exchange for clamping down on people smugglers, was sprung on the commissioners without notice.

“It came on a Friday afternoon and we had one hour to say no. If after one hour, you hadn’t said anything it was yes. This is unacceptable,” the Luxembourger told the Financial Times.

He said the way Tunisia treats refugees is “just shocking”, contrasting the deal with Turkey in 2016, where he said EU money was given to NGOs rather than security forces.

Schmit has previous criticised von der Leyen but not in such an explicit way.

He was recently one of the three commissioners, including French commissioner Thierry Breton, who criticised the president for the way in which she hired a small business envoy.

He also said the socialists would not be backing von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission president if she did a deal with the radical right wing political group in parliament, the European Reformists and Conservatives (ECR).

Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer told the FT the process around decisions was “collegial”.

Piotr Stolecki, a candidate for Poland 2050 – part of the Third Way alliance – said in a phone interview that “we are very worried about the turnout.”

“There is a fatigue,” he said, adding that “the political parties were very late with the with the European campaign.”

“We are trying to maximise the turnout by constantly messaging people through social media, through media, that those elections are very, very important because of the situation in Europe, because of the situation in Ukraine, etc. And not to let too many populist and right-wing parties to win the seats,” he added.

“There is a big push right now,” Stolecki noted.

Poland’s Law and Justice is a key member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European parliament.

There has been significant speculation that the ECR will evolve in the next European parliament – and that it could take on new members such as Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, which is currently not a member of any European political family.

Asked about the possible expansion of the ECR, Anna Fotyga, a longtime member of the European parliament and Law and Justice, said:

“I’m experienced enough to wait for election results,” she said, adding: “it is very difficult to calculate earlier.”

Fotyga said she was “disappointed” by changes within the ECR as a result of Brexit, noting that it had a “very good composition” with the British conservatives. “Yet we managed to keep the balance,” she said.

“Of course, we are happy with prospects of expanding the group, but simply wait for the final results,” she said.