“We disapprove of this” – Merz calls for clarification from EPP boss Weber about agreements with right-wing extremists | EUROtoday

Friedrich Merz (CDU) has demanded clarification from the pinnacle of the European People’s Party (EPP) about cooperation with ultra-right factions within the EU Parliament. Together with CSU chairman Markus Söder, he expects “that this will be stopped and that this may have consequences,” mentioned Merz on Monday in Berlin. “Manfred Weber is now responsible for this.” The CSU politician Weber is chairman and group chief of the EPP.

“The EPP group leader also knows that we don’t want this cooperation,” mentioned Merz. Here too he agrees with Söder. “We disapprove of what obviously took place at employee level over the last week.” For him it was “very clear and clear”: “We do not work together with the right-wing radicals in the European Parliament,” mentioned Merz.

Research by the German Press Agency had proven that the EPP group cooperated far more carefully with far-right teams than was beforehand recognized. One of those factions is the ESN (Europe of Sovereign Nations), to which the AfD belongs. The EPP just lately labored along with the suitable wing in a chat group and at a private assembly of MPs on a legislative proposal to tighten migration coverage. Shortly afterwards, this obtained a majority within the accountable committee of the European Parliament.

CSU chief Markus Söder mentioned the revelations had “very surprised and also irritated and disturbed” his social gathering. However, EPP chief and social gathering colleague Manfred Weber advised him that he would make sure that one thing like this now not occurs.

The chief of the Left within the European Parliament, Martin Schirdewan, in the meantime known as for penalties: “Manfred Weber must resign,” he mentioned. Under parliamentary group chief Weber, the EPP had already opted for the right-wing bloc when it got here to the provision chain regulation. According to the most recent revelations, it’s now clear: the dismantling of the firewall was not an industrial accident, however was carried out systematically and structurally.