As of: March 23, 2024, 3:39 p.m
By: Moritz Maier
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Katarina Barley (SPD) deals heavily against conservatives and liberals.
By lacking a right-wing demarcation, they are intended to promote the rise of parties like the AfD.
Berlin/Strasbourg – Are parties like the CDU, CSU and FDP partly responsible for the rise and soaring of the AfD?
Europe's leading candidate Katarina Barley (SPD) says with a view to Germany's neighboring states: yes.
Barley observes a crumbling firewall in the EU.
The accusation is that the lack of demarcation between democratic parties strengthens right-wing and right-wing extremist movements.
The Social Democrat uses the election in the Netherlands as the latest example.
SPD politician Barley: “Conservatives and liberals trivialize and normalize right-wing extremists”
In an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
, Barley criticizes the lack of a firewall at EU level and in the member states.
“It's often like this: conservatives and even liberals talk democratically, but turn their gaze to the right,” says Barley.
“That's what we're seeing at the moment when conservatives say that with right-wing extremists we have to see whether everyone is equally bad and point out that we can work with a Giorgia Meloni in Italy.” Meloni is Prime Minister in Italy and is considered a post-fascist.
Last year, CSU European politician Manfred Weber no longer ruled out an alliance with Meloni.
Barley criticizes this sharply: “Therein lies the mistake: conservatives and liberals trivialize and normalize right-wing extremists.
And the problem is that they don’t learn that either.”
Katarina Barley, SPD's top candidate for the European elections, sharply criticizes conservative and liberal politicians in Europe.
© IMAGO/Kira Hofmann
The SPD politician and Vice President of the European Parliament classifies this “trivialization and normalization” as an indirect stirrup for politicians on the right-wing fringe.
Barley leads last year's Dutch elections, in which right-wing politician Geert Wilder's PVV party became the strongest force.
“Geert Wilders and his right-wing views are not new, everyone has known him for 20 years.
He was consistently in fourth place in election polls.
That changed exactly at the moment when the Liberals said they were no longer ruling out cooperation and made him socially acceptable.
That was two weeks before the election, when Wilder's party became the strongest force.
“So what happens before an election is important,” says Barley.
Cooperation with right-wing extremists in EU countries
A similar development can also be observed in other member states of the European Union.
“Both the conservatives and the liberals do not consistently differentiate themselves to the right.
We are already seeing this in Finland and Italy.
In Sweden, liberals allow themselves to be tolerated by the radical right.
“That’s simply wrong,” says SPD top candidate Barley in an interview.
That's why Barley himself wants to advocate for a clear demarcation at all times: "You have to start before the election and clearly draw the firewall to the right."
Barley does not mention the German parties CDU, CSU and FDP by name in her criticism.
For her SPD, however, she assures that she will never want to make a pact with right-wing politicians.
“That is the history of our party.
We don't work with right-wing radicals," says Barley and adds: "We make no distinction as to whether some politicians like Meloni now appear more Europe-friendly to the outside world.
At home she also does what right-wing extremists do.”