On the 3rd of October KEW experts (Adam Balcer, Anais Marin, Zsuzsanna Vegh) and our fellow (Vit Dostal) took part in a roundtable called “A new hand of Eurosceptic cards. Perspectives on cooperation between illiberal parties in light of the European elections”. The College of Eastern Europe (KEW) organized the roundtable together with the Political Capital Institute in cooperation with Heinrich Boll Stiftung in Prague, German Marshall Fund. It took place in the Central European University in Budapest. The roundtable was held within the framework of the “Protecting European Values” project, which is co-funded by the European Commission.
The first intervention undertaken by Zsuzsanna Vegh and commented by Bulcsu Hunyadi concerned the possibilities of coalition building for Fidesz within the EU. The MEPs of Orban’s party formed the Patriots for Europe faction in the European Parliament with other nationalists from across Europe such as Le Pen’s party, ANO from Czech Republic or FPÖ from Austria. Now, this far-right group is the third largest political club in the European Parliament and aims to gain more strength in the European Council in the future through cooperation with other far-right parties, especially untied in the European Conservatives and Reformists and a conservative national left. The threats that might emerge from this scenario on the EU level involve a democratic backsliding, the sabotage of the key EU policies: the further internal integration, cooperation concerning migration issues, the Green Deal and continuation of the enlargement. What is more, Fidesz is gaining influence in Western Balkans, making investments in key sectors of their economy and in Western Europe supporting similar parties’ campaigns financially and as a role model for them.
Then, the case studies of Poland and Czechia were presented. Adam Balcer stressed, that the last European elections in Poland confirmed again a very high level of political polarization. Almost 75% of all the votes were casted for two largest political forces (Civil Coalition – KO against Law and Justice-PiS), but at the same time, taking into consideration far right parties (“soft” PiS and “hard” Confederation), they received almost half of the votes. This result stringed they standings in polls what may allow them to gain power in the next national elections. However, these far-right parties differ substantially concerning their place on the European scene. Moreover, the Confederation is highly internally diverse. Indeed, MEPs of the latter split into three groups in the EP: the Patriots, the Sovereigntists and the Non-Inscrits.
According to Vit Dostal, in the Czech case the crucial development represents an alliance formed between ANO party, which won the most recent European elections in Czechia, and Fidesz on the European level. After the attempt of negotiating the continuation of cooperation within the Renew Europe Group, ANO eventually joined Patriots for Europe in order to pose itself in the opposition to the current ruling Czech coalition before the upcoming national elections (Autumn 2025). Nevertheless, ANO still mostly criticizes the government from social-economic positions and rather avoids cultural wars. The electoral campaign before the most recent regional elections proved this phenomenon.
Anais Marin presented the current role of Russia in the EU politics. According to her, the more Eurosceptic and divided Europe become, the more benefits will occur for Russia. Moscow uses its sharp power when comes to its relations with Europe, since Russian soft power is strongly discredited across the continent. The best scenario for Russia to regain power in the continent is to hold bilateral talks with separated European countries and political forces instead of having to face the united Europe. Anais underlined that the EU in order to prevent the restoration of Russian influence, must stop the democracy backsliding, strengthen the resilience of institutions and focus on providing social security to its citizens.
During the debate, participants focused on the fragility of the cooperation between nationalists in the European Parliament. It was mentioned that under the facade of topics that seem to unite the nationalists like migration or climate policy, there are some serious issues dividing them especially the policy towards Russia. However, on the other hand, discussants agreed that an unprecedented increase of cooperation between the far-right parties is an undeniable fact and that it may be strengthened by Trump’s victory in the EU.
