The far-right are increasingly taking the lead in EU migration policies as the mainstream centrist parties continue to be lured by their ideas.
Nikolaj Nielsen
The EU’s new restrictive migration policy on return hubs last month (17 June) drew in votes from unexpected corners of the European Parliament, splitting liberals and socialists into uncharacteristic camps.
Most European lawmakers voted in favour of the new regulation that drew widespread support from the political extremes, including Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Now Renew Europe, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and even some Greens are joining the cause to push far-right-inspired migration policies. The return regulation, which includes setting up deportation centres in third countries, is among them.
The legislation passed amid chants of “Send Them Back” from fist-pumping far-right MEPs, even though it allows families and children to be sent to deportation hubs abroad.
A breakdown of the vote showed it largely passed thanks to the rightwing bloc, including the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), while more than half of Renew Europe’s liberals also backed it.
“The fact that some centrist and liberal MEPs also backed it highlights the growing normalisation of anti-migrant rhetoric and mainstream parties’ willingness to yield to far-right pressure,” says Picum, a Brussels-based NGO working on migrant rights.
“Without that political courage and clarity of purpose, the far-right will only get stronger and laws will become increasingly repressive,” added the NGO.
Suprisingly, nine S&D MEPs and two Greens also voted in favour.
Alex Agius Saliba, a socialist from Malta, says he voted in favour because he was “defending the interests of Malta and Gozo.” His two other socialists from Malta agreed.
So too did the socialist Danes, reflecting national politics that have for years framed asylum and migration as security threats in the Nordic country.
Only two Green MEPs voted in favour, pitting them against their entire group of 53 lawmakers.
Most notable was the vice-chair of the Greens, Virginijus Sinkevičius from Lithuania and a former environment European Commissioner. Green MEP Mārtiņš Staķis from Latvia also voted in favour.
