brussels
It lasted just a few days, the attempt of the Five Star Movement to join the liberal group ALDE of the european Parliament. Yesterday evening, the chairman of the group, Guy Verhofstadt, has taken note of the opposition of many of his liberal deputies and announced that the hypothesis of an accession agreement of the party led by Beppe Grillo has failed. The story is confused and controversial, is likely to weaken the candidacy of the former premier of the belgian presidency of the assembly of Strasbourg.
“I came to the conclusion that there are sufficient guarantees to find a consensus on a common agenda for Europe”, said yesterday evening Verhofstadt. “There is insufficient common ground to accept the request of the M5S to join ALDE. There are continuing fundamental differences on crucial aspects of the european, as for example on the euro. That said, on matters of shared such as the environment, transparency, and direct democracy – the ALDE group and the M5S will continue to work together.”
The position has come after a meeting of the Bureau of the ALDE group in a day marked by great confusion, caused by the unexpected decision of the M5S to join the liberal group, leaving the group which is dominated by the eurosceptic UK Independent Party of Nigel Farage. Many liberal deputies have criticised the negotiations behind the scenes that Verhofstadt has had in these recent days, with the M5S, to the development of a draft agreement, circulated then on the Internet.
The French parliamentary and many countries of Northern Europe have stressed how the movement of Beppe Grillo is not sufficiently pro-european. “We have good hopes to block the accession of the M5S in our group,” he had said in the afternoon, Marielle de Sarnez, leader of the delegation, a liberal French in Strasbourg, referring to a vote that the group would have to hold today, but that following the meeting of the Bureau of the ALDE has been deleted.
as reported yesterday evening a representative of the parliamentary here in Brussels, the last meeting was held without any major debate. Taking note of the opposition of many liberal deputies at the entrance of the M5S in the parliamentary group, Verhofstadt has left the game. On the other hand, a few hours before, mrs de Sarnez had chided the former premier of the belgian to a move far from transparent, and just democratic that would put “in danger the coherence of the pro-european liberal group”.
The strategy of Verhofstadt was surprised, so much the more that these is a candidate for the presidency of Strasbourg. With the arrival of the M5S, its goal was to strengthen the ALDE. Today, the fifth group in order of importance, with 17 deputies M5S would become the third. In addition, it is possible that the former premier was thought that the presence grillina in the liberal group would have helped his candidacy (even if they are emerged from the divisions among the same 17 members of the M5S on the opportunity to join the ALDE, and then to vote for Verhofstadt).
in many ways, the business is proving to be as much a failure of Cricket as a failure of Verhofstadt. In this sense, many observers noticed yesterday evening that the story is likely at this point to penalize the image of the same ex-belgian prime minister in the eyes of many potential voters – many liberals, but also many socialists and greens – at the time of the vote for a new president of the assembly scheduled on January 17.
unless there is a sudden strengthening of the parliamentary group, perhaps around a application alternative which the mep French Sylvie Goulard, ALDE and it is divided in the vote on a new president of the european Parliament. It is uncertain at this time if the current divisions in the liberal group will support in the voting of mid-January, the socialist candidate, Gianni Pittella, or his opponent, the popular vice-president Antonio Tajani.
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