The President of the European People’s Party (EPP) Wilfried Martens responded today to the repeated attacks of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and its leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen on the position of the EPP regarding the new government in the Netherlands. On October 3rd, President Martens deplored the recent evolution of political extremism in Europe (click here for Oct.3 statement):

"On October 3rd, I declared that it is the duty of the major political families in Europe to reflect and to combat jointly the rise of extremism. Following my declaration, I initiated a discreet effort to bring together the leaders of the main European parties – the Party of European Socialists (PES), the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party (ELDR), and the European Green Party (EGP) – so we can establish a common framework for dialogue and to respond to this challenge.

After repeated overtures, the only leader who did not show any interest in this effort was PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. And the reason for the lack of interest is because the Socialists see the rise of extremism as an opportunity to promote their self-serving political interests. For example, in the last two weeks, Rasmussen and the Socialists tried to use the issue to repeatedly attack the EPP with various populist ‘cheap shots’, and on October 14 the PES asked the EPP to sign-up to a declaration that basically accuses EPP governments for the rise of extremism in Europe. It is very disappointing to see the PES, Europe’s second largest political party, trying to exploit the rise of extremism for political gain.

At the same time, the ambiguity of Rasmussen and the Socialists is mind-boggling. The Oct.14 announcement of the PES ‘guidelines’ to isolate the extreme right actually came 4-years too late, since a leading PES member-party from Slovakia – the Socialist/populist SMER – had already been in a majority coalition with the ultra-nationalist anti-Hungarian SNS party until July 2010. Despite great resentment within the PES towards the SMER-SNS majority coalition, Rasmussen quickly rehabilitated his good friend and SMER leader Robert Fico by promoting him as a leading PES Prime Minister in all European fora, and supporting his failed 2010 election campaign.

Finally, I am personally very disappointed with Mr. Rasmussen who has gone as far as to blame centre-right governments and policies for the rise of extremism. Rasmussen’s rhetoric is truly astonishing, coming from a former Prime Minister who during his failed 2001 campaign in Denmark, he focused mainly on immigration and refugee issues to get re-elected, which ultimately worked to the benefit of the anti-immigration DF party.

I sincerely hope that Rasmussen and the PES will come to their senses and put above their own interests, the interests and well being of European societies."

ENDS