The Cordon Sanitaire died before it was born: a new European Right consensus
European Right finds consensus on Venezuela amidst liberal hypocrisy
Last week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution to recognise Edmundo Gonzalez as the legitimate President of Venezuela, following elections in which he was the clear winner but was denied by the Marxist Maduro regime.
The most striking thing about the vote was the remarkable consensus achieved. There are three right-wing blocs in the European Parliament. These are:
European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), dominated by Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) and Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) parties
Patriots for Europe (PfE), dominated by Hungary’s Fidesz, and including France’s National Rally (RN), the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), the Danish People’s Part and Vlaams Belang.
Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN), dominated by the Alternative for Germany (AfD)
There is also the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM) whose members tend to sit with one of the above, and other right-wing MEPs who are Non-Inscrits (unaffiliated to a recognised party grouping).
There are some differences between these national conservative groupings, mainly pertaining to historic issues, geopolitics and foreign policy, but also much common ground in terms of national identity, migration and Culture War issues. However, on the subject of Venezuela there was a consensus with all three groupings voting overwhelmingly along with the establishment centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in favour of recognising Gonzalez. Only a handful dissented. Even MEPs from parties like Konfederacja (Poland) and Mi Hazank (Our Homeland, Hungary) voted in favour of the resolution.
The Socialists and Democrats (with honourable exceptions from Portugal) voted against the resolution, as did the Greens and Left. Meanwhile the “liberal” Renew Europe, one of the biggest advocates of Woke Globalism and the “cordon sanitaire” against what they call the “far right”, chose not to take part in the vote because they didn’t want to empower the Right. Granted, the EPP isn’t necessarily much better and has some awful parties and politicians… but they took part and voted in favour.
The boneheaded illiberalism of European “liberals”, like their American and Canadian counterparts, was made clear by their absence. So much for democracy, freedom and human rights which they claim to stand for… but are much better defended by the people they like to call “far right”. They defeated themselves, and the “cordon sanitaire” was broken, allowing conservatives a greater role to influence things.
Even if differences over certain policy points rule out unification, the Right in Europe can go on its way to greater influence through consensus on culture, identity and foreign policy issues such as Venezuela and Iran.