This transfer, which follows a vote of 38 votes to 16 on Monday in the political assembly of the Engagés, was made official on Thursday, during a press conference at the European Parliament, by the president of the Engagés Maxime Prévot, that of the PDE François Bayrou and by the president of the Renew group, Valérie Hayer.
“Entering the family of the European Democratic Party is a step in a new direction more in line with our modern values, which are moving further and further away from the conservative ideas of the EPP, for example on the environment and migration,” he said. explained Mr. Prévot.
Under the previous legislature, the elected Engagés Benoît Lutgen repeatedly deviated from the majority line of the EPP, while the vice-president of the Engagés Yvan Verougstraete, called to replace Mr. Lutgen in Strasbourg, questioned the membership of the EPP during the electoral campaign. “It is a question of honesty towards voters and citizens. It is clear that since our re-foundation, the accents given by the EPP correspond less to us,” he justified.
The Engagés begin “exploratory steps” to integrate a new group into the European Parliament
“The circle is thus closed, with the renewal embodied by the Engagés”, according to Mr. Prévot, who transformed the cdH (ex-PSC) into a party which experienced the greatest progress in the elections of June 9. In the audience were, side by side, the founder of the cdH Joëlle Milquet and the former president of the PSC Gérard Deprez, kingpin of the PDE.
“It’s an extraordinarily moving and promising event,” rejoiced François Bayrou, founder of the French MoDem and ally of President Emmanuel Macron. “By creating the PDE twenty years ago, Romano Prodi (former President of the European Commission and Italian Prime Minister, Editor’s note) and I wanted to build a truly autonomous center that was sure that the future of Europe would not be did not play between the left and the right, one half of the population against the other. We defended this with Gérard Deprez and Joëlle Milquet within the Athens group (1998), when the EPP decided to turn more and more. almost exclusively to the right.
The structure of the political groups in the European Parliament suggests a rapprochement between Les Engagés and the MR, especially as they are both currently negotiating for the formation of government majorities in Belgium. But Maxime Prévot’s party refutes this reading, insisting on the difference between a European political party and the parliamentary group in which it is part.
Thus, the Renew Europe parliamentary group (80 MEPs) is made up of two branches: the Party of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), to which the MR and the Open Vld are affiliated, and the PDE, to which Les Engagés now adhere.
“Let it be clear, there is no desire for rapprochement with the MR. There would be no point in wanting to join the MR, whose very conservative overtones we denounce on a national scale, while we are distancing ourselves from the overly conservative majority accents within the EPP”, according to Mr. Prévot.
Yvan Verougstraete will therefore now sit in a parliamentary group different from that of the CD&V and the German-speaking CSP, which remain in the EPP. “With the transformation of the cdH into Engagés, one of the breaking elements was the exemption from any reference or anchoring of a religious nature. The values of generosity, tolerance, sense of effort, merit and responsibility have a universal dimension “, repeated Maxime Prévot. For Yvan Verougstraete, the objective is to “represent the humanist and most progressive branch” of Renew.
Federal formation: “We should try with the N-VA, the CD&V, Les Engagés and the MR”, says the president of Vooruit
Renew is currently in negotiations with the EPP and the S&D group (socialists and social democrats) for a renewal of the outgoing majority, in support of a probable Von der Leyen II Commission. Valérie Hayer affirms that Renew, whose 3rd place is currently threatened by the ECR (Eurosceptic right and extreme right), will welcome other new elected officials. “You are opening the door to other arrivals in the coming days,” she assured.
Concerning the far right, Renew has yet to decide the fate of the Dutch liberal party VVD, whose affiliation is contested due to the government agreement concluded with the PVV, the far-right party of Geert Wilders. While the N-VA, with which Les Engagés and the MR could negotiate a federal government, rubs shoulders with far-right parties in its ECR group.
“We will continue to denounce groups that choose to collude with the extreme right, as we did in the EPP” (by campaigning for the expulsion of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, Editor’s note), replies Maxime Prévot. In his eyes, “the victory of the centrists in Belgium demonstrates that having an assertive, nuanced but proactive speech can convince citizens that they are not condemned to turn towards the extremes”.
