European problems beyond Orban

I n recent years, the EPP leadership has been urged countless times to stop protecting Orbán and his all-out war on democracy and on migration. Each time, they responded that keeping him on board would moderate his actions. That approach has not worked. To the contrary, other parties in the EPP family are following him to the fringes and embracing his views, rather than rejecting them. As a result, the EPP is deeply split — along with other traditional party families — over issues like migration, identity and values.

Orbán is not the problem. He is merely one of its most prominent symptoms. What’s needed in Europe is a total shake-up of the political landscape. Today’s divisions in the European Parliament do not run between political groups, but all too often within them. Pro-European, progressive liberal-democrat forces are scattered over the institution’s political groups. And, at the same time, populist and nationalist forces can be found in most of the mainstream political groups — and not just on the fringes.

The result all too often is paralysis, as MEPs feel torn between their membership of a group and their own values and convictions. In the age of Trump, Brexit and Putin, pro-European forces in the centre cannot afford to remain fragmented, competing with each other rather than joining forces. The European parliamentary election in May 2019 is an opportunity to shake up the landscape and create new alliances.

We must make a new, joint proposition to voters: an agenda for change. This agenda would offer a European Union that is stronger, more representative of citizens and better able to respond to challenges in the world of today; a Europe based on solidarity and protection for the vulnerable; a Europe that defends and strengthens equality, pluralism, rights and freedoms; and, most of all, a Europe that is a community of values and a political union.