Anti-Europe Parties at Odds, Despite Shared Cause

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/world/europe/anti-europe-parties-at-odds-despite-shared-cause.html

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LONDON — Geert Wilders, the leader of the populist Freedom Party in the Netherlands, told cheering supporters two months ago that he wanted fewer Moroccans in the country. One of his party’s most prominent and charismatic figures, Laurence Stassen, a former television reporter and a member of the European Parliament, promptly quit in protest.

But rather than give up her re-election bid, Ms. Stassen simply moved her campaign across the North Sea to Britain. Under the European Union’s rules, European citizens can generally run for the European Parliament from any member country, allowing her to seek a seat representing southeast England as a member of a small British party dedicated to the same cause that defined her politics at home: reining in the European Union and stopping further integration.

On one level, her move is evidence of the broad, cross-border appeal of populist, nationalistic messages after years of economic hardship across Europe and demands for budget austerity from its leaders.

But Ms. Stassen’s move has also helped expose deep fissures in the anti-establishment parties of Europe as they head into the final days of campaigning before elections at the end of the week. Ms. Stassen was able to distance herself from Mr. Wilders, among the most high-profile of the far-right leaders in Europe, and also avoided associating herself with Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, known as UKIP, which has built a substantial following in Britain with an anti-integration, anti-immigration message.

The infighting among the contending anti-Europe parties could dilute their collective strength if, as polls suggest, they make big gains in the European Parliament when the votes are tallied on Sunday.

Riding a tide of anti-establishment sentiment, politicians seeking to rein in Brussels could finish first in seven European Union countries, according to a report by the London School of Economics and Political Science. Rightist candidates could win in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Finland and the Netherlands, while a leftist populist party may do the same in Greece, the report notes.

“We are going to see euro-skeptics selected from the right, the center, the left,” Mr. Farage predicted last month. “I don’t know what percentage, maybe 25 percent, maybe a little more. European politics will look very different after the results.”

There is little cohesion among the parties, which range from extreme-right groups like Greece’s Golden Dawn, to Germany’s more academic Alternative for Deutschland, which wants to abandon the euro, the alliance’s common currency. Some nationalist parties seem to dislike each other as much as they do the European Union.

Gawain Towler, a former spokesman for UKIP and now a candidate for the party in the elections, said that “on big ticket questions of whether there will be further European integration, votes will be aligned.” But he added: “Each patriotic party has their own reasons for being patriotic. A French patriot might not be madly keen on a British patriot so it is not surprising that there are differences of opinion.”

Under the rules of the European Parliament, political parties gain funding, speaking time and positions on powerful committees if they band together. To form a group, there must be at least 25 lawmakers from a minimum of seven European Union countries. Britain’s UKIP is in such a group — the Europe of Freedom and Democracy — but the Dutch Freedom Party and the French National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, are not.

The last time the most far-right parties tried to form a group together in the European Parliament, in 2007, it lasted a matter of months before collapsing amid recriminations.

Mr. Farage has ruled out working with Ms. Le Pen, saying that the views of some in her party are too extreme. “I keep saying no to her offer of marriage. I’m not interested,” he said last month. Ms. Le Pen has accused Mr. Farage of being dishonest.

Even between Mr. Wilder’s Freedom Party and the National Front in France, there are striking differences. Mr. Wilders, who is a staunch critic of Islam, is a strong supporter of Israel and of gay rights. Ms. Le Pen has sought to moderate her party’s image, but it still has many followers of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party’s founder, who once described the Nazi gas chambers as a “detail in the history” of World War II. Ms. Le Pen opposes gay marriage.

An influx of populists into the European Parliament could block legislation to liberalize the services sector in Europe and deepen integration in the euro zone, and derail a trans-Atlantic free trade agreement that is under negotiation.

Simon Hix, professor of European and comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said the populist parties could generate pressure to curb the free movement of people across European borders. “It is not that this radical right group will have that much power, it’s more how parties on the center-right are going to respond to the emergence of this radical right,” he said.

But in Britain, even two parties with quite similar views are at odds, as Ms. Stassen’s candidacy shows. She did not seek to run for Mr. Farage’s party, instead opting for a smaller rival, An Independence From Europe, led by Mike Nattrass, a former European member of Parliament and a former member of UKIP. Mr. Nattrass has said that Mr. Farage “makes Machiavelli look like an amateur.” In an interview here, Ms. Stassen said, “Farage is a leader who is working top down; he’s in charge, he’s all about power.”

But in a recent speech, Ms. Stassen laid out many of the same arguments as Mr. Farage’s UKIP. By leaving the European Union, she said, countries could “once again determine their own budget and their own policies on trade and immigration.”

Ms. Stassen, who said that she has received abusive emails from some UKIP supporters accusing her of dividing the anti-Europe right, insists that she will fight for what she believes in.

“UKIP does not have the patent on being euro-skeptic,” she said.