The European Council on Foreign Relations has predicted that Eurosceptics could win up to one-third of seats in the May European Parliament elections and that “anti-European” parties could align to undo the progressive, globalist European Project.
In its report, “How Anti-Europeans Plan to Wreck Europe and What Can Be Done to Stop It,” the ECFR, which was founded in 2007 with initial funding from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the researchers warn that a victory for pro-sovereigntists could result in the dismantling of the EU’s agenda, including, “abolishing sanctions on Russia to blocking the EU’s foreign trade agenda, to pulling the drawbridge up against migration.”
Despite acknowledging that the only democratically-elected European Union officials — the Members of European Parliament — are the “least powerful” part of the Brussels mechanism, the ECFR nevertheless fears that “The vote could see a group of nationalist anti-European political parties that advocate a return to a ‘Europe of the nations’ win a controlling share of seats in the EP” and “in the longer term” they could “paralyse decision-making at the centre of the EU.”
“At this point, the EU would be living on borrowed time,” the report states.
One area that could be affected by rising populism is the so-called “Rule of Law” — adherence to what are often referred to as “European Values.”
In 2018, Article 7 — which can result in sanctions and the blocking of voting rights — was invoked against right-wing Poland over its judicial reforms and conservative Hungary over its migration policies. With the process dependent on support from the European Parliament and the Council, the ECFR fears that more nationalist-patriots will make it difficult to”defend democracy” by punishing countries that do not embrace the EU’s fundamental progressive principles.
The globalist think tank also said that another “major threat” posed by the 2019 EP elections is to the EU’s migration policies, saying, “with many more anti-immigrant MEPs present in the next parliament, their voices would become much stronger than they are today, which could limit the capacity of member states and the Council to seek a humanitarian and solidarity-based approach towards migration challenges.”
In terms of Euroscepticism by nation, the ECFR predicts that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally will win the EP elections in France against the backdrop of rising discontent with the progressive agenda of President Emmanuel Macron and the months of Yellow Vest protests.
In Italy, it is predicted that the number of MEPs from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) will halve from 14 to seven and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) will nearly halve from 31 to 16. While the eurosceptic Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), of which the governing coalition the League is a member, will see a near-five fold increase from six seats to 29 and the populist Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), to which fellow governing coalition partner the Five Star Movement belongs, will go from 14 to 24 seats.
In attempts to wrestle democracy out of the hands of European peoples weary of a pan-continental progressive hegemony, the think tank suggests pro-EU forces attempt to “drive a wedge between anti-European parties” on issues where they may differ such as on migrant redistribution or the budget, and should “fram[e] the election with a pro-European agenda” by highlighting key EU issues such as “fundamental values,” tax justice, the green agenda, and anti-Russianism, which the ECFR believes will mobilise the apparent “silent pro-European majority” of the population to vote for more Europe.