In the latest blow, Ludovic de Danne, the secretary-general of the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), one of the two main anti-EU groups in Parliament, was dismissed last week in what he described to French media as an “inevitable divorce,” partly due to his alleged role in the group’s recent problems with its finances and corruption allegations. [...]
And in a twist, even the Euroskeptics’ success on Brexit has worked against them in the European Parliament: the other main anti-EU group of MEPs, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), now stands to lose 20 of its members from the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) when Britain leaves the EU in 2019. Without UKIP, the EFDD would fall short of the minimum of 25 MEPs required to form a group in Parliament, and may have to disband. [...]
The populist Alternative for Germany party is expected to win seats in Germany’s parliamentary election later this month and other anti-EU parties like the National Front in France and the Populist Party for Freedom in the Netherlands made gains in their national legislatures, even though they fell well short of their targets. In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) is expected to make a strong showing in parliamentary election next month. [...]
But in the European Parliament, the weakening of Euroskeptics suggests that pro-EU leaders have had at least some success in imposing their cordon sanitaire — essentially an effort to choke off the anti-EU groups and deny them influence in policymaking. Leaders have also sought to keep the Euroskeptics off balance by pushing for investigations into alleged corruption, including misuse of Parliament funds for national political purposes. [...]
France’s National Front is in the midst of an investigation by OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud agency, and the Paris prosecutor involving allegations of “breach of trust,” “organized fraud,” “forgery and use of forged documents,” and “undeclared work.” The investigation will determine whether some assistants in the group were paid by the Parliament to carry out non-parliamentary work.[...]
Last year, the Parliament suspended payment of some €90,000 to a think tank linked to Nigel Farage’s UKIP because of suspicions that it accepted donations from firms and individuals, only to pay the money back using cash from the Parliament by awarding them contracts that far exceeded the amount they had donated.
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