Anti-EU Parties Are Here to Stay Analysis MAY 20, 2015 | 09:15 GMT Print Text Size
Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Front party, attends a political event in the city of Lyon on March 1. (JEFF PACHOUD/AFP IMAGES)
Analysis Forecast Despite corruption scandals, the popularity of anti-establishment parties will keep rising as economic pressures in the European Union persist. Establishment parties will try to contain anti-EU sentiment by any means necessary, including fraud allegations. Structural problems and weak oversight will ensure that corruption will continue to exist within parties.
Economic decline and a series of corruption scandals involving mainstream political parties in EU member states have helped boost the influence of nationalist, Euroskeptic and anti-establishment parties. But now a prominent anti-establishment party has been accused of corruption too. On March 9, European Parliament President Martin Schultz reported France's National Front to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for corruption. Official accusations are rare, and the National Front quickly reacted by accusing Schultz of using his power to defame the party prior to local elections in France. But if Schultz was trying to contain anti-EU forces within the Parliament, the strategy did not work. In the first round of local elections — just three weeks after the allegations were made public — the party won more than 25 percent of the vote, a record high. Though it has become clear it will take more than a corruption scandal to damage anti-EU parties, the case has shed light on broader issues, including the difficulty of ensuring oversight of EU institutions and the fundamental threat anti-establishment parties pose to the European project. In May 2014, a record number of Euroskeptics were elected to the European Parliament, altering the composition of the governing body but not altogether changing the status quo. The change in voting patterns was caused by frustration with the economy and declining confidence in establishment parties, many of which have been implicated in fraud and corruption scandals. The first corruption scandal broke in 1996, some 45 years after the European Coal and Steel Community started the process of European integration, and involved two socialists in the European Commission — French Commissioner Edith Cresson and Spanish Commissioner Manuel Martin — who were accused of fraud, nepotism and mismanaging EU funds. The ensuing political battle lasted three years, ending with the collective resignation of the Commission. It was this scandal that prompted the creation of OLAF. The organization was given jurisdiction over a variety of cases, including tobacco smuggling and all types of fraud and corruption involving European institutions. However, the organization does not have any enforcement power; its work ends with the reports of findings it sends to the affected institution or to national courts. Moreover, members of the European Parliament have said the organization — although supposedly independent — is actually loyal to members of the European Commission. These accusations have limited the amount of power EU officials have been willing to give OLAF during the several rounds of reform it has undergone since its founding. The organization's opacity has further fostered this sense of mistrust.
The Turn Toward Anti-Establishment Parties Even after a record number of anti-EU members of parliament were elected in 2014, it was not clear that antiestablishment elements would be able to organize themselves into an influential force. The divergent interests of anti-EU parties make the process of creating a coalition in the European Parliament — requiring 25 members of parliament from a minimum of 7 member states — even more difficult. Eventually, UKIP was able to create a Euroskeptic coalition called Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy by winning the loyalty of individual members of parliament rather than of whole parties. However, this strategy left the coalition vulnerable. In October, Latvia's Iveta Grigule exited the group, leaving it one nationality short of EU requirements. The move threatened to destroy the coalition altogether, prompting UKIP leader Nigel Farage to claim it was the result of sabotage. Farage said that Schultz, the centrist European Parliament president, had pressured Grigule to defect, insinuating that the EU Commission was trying to neutralize the Euroskeptics in parliament.
The rise of anti-establishment parties in the European Parliament does, in fact, threaten the European Union. The European Parliament has always presented itself as the only democratic institution in the European government; its members are elected directly by citizens, yet it is the product of pan-European ideals. This means that members of parliament are sometimes beholden more to their constituents' interests than to the Union's, though their very existence is due entirely to international integration efforts. Thus, members of parliament constantly find themselves balancing between pan-Europeanism and nationalism. The increased presence of Euroskeptic parties threatens to alter that balance in favor of nationalism. Though the antiestablishment crowd is still a minority with limited power, their popularity could eventually create divisions within the Parliament that might ultimately lead to its demise. Two parties in the European Parliament, the center-right European People's Party and the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats recognize this threat and have banded together to oppose Euroskeptics.
Corruption and Hypocrisy According to the accusations against the National Front, the party listed 20 assistants on its organizational chart who also work at its headquarters in Paris — something forbidden under Commission rules. (Some estimate that the hiring practices cost the European Union 7.5 million euros.) But the accusations surfaced just as the party was forecast to win local elections in France. The party's leadership reacted swiftly, describing Schultz as a political activist campaigning against anti-EU parties. In fact, although officially it is the president's obligation to report abuse to OLAF, similar cases have been managed internally in the past. Indeed, this is the first time Schultz has publicly referred members of his Parliament to OLAF. Few parties are innocent when it comes to dubious hiring practices. Members are allowed to have two types of
assistants: local and accredited. Local assistants are meant to help EU deputies keep in touch with their constituencies, and their hiring is not subject to institutional controls. Accredited assistants, on the other hand, support deputies in their legislative work in Brussels and must be approved by the European Parliament. However, in a report released in March, it was noted that in 2013 the 751 members of parliament had 1,785 accredited parliamentary assistants and 4,860 local assistants. One member of parliament even had 43 local assistants and none in Brussels. The imbalance indicates that many deputies are not invested in their work in Brussels and that parties are abusing the generous EU budget by inflating the numbers of workers they employ. The problem is a widespread one, and the lack of oversight over local assistants allows officials to trade jobs for political favors.
Partly because the problem is so widespread, the corruption allegations against the National Front did not hurt the party. Instead, the party fared well in the first round of local elections. The National Front even used the allegations to further sell its identity as a party opposed to the EU establishment. Whereas corruption scandals involving established parties led to the rise of political alternatives, the corruption scandals facing the National Front make the party seem like the victim of an unfair and aggressive European Union. In this way, the allegations are actually helping the Euroskeptic agenda. Politically motivated allegations are risky in other ways as well. Now that the Parliament has made its move against the National Front, the door is wide open for many more investigations into similar cases involving centrist members of parliament guilty of the same thing. Consequently, the battle will ultimately hurt the credibility of the institution as a whole. As dreams of European integration and a federal Europe slowly give way to nationalist instincts once again,
Brussels will desperately try to counter the process. However, so long as the European economy remains weak, any attempt to curtail the rise of anti-EU parties will not have the desired effect. Meanwhile, widespread corruption and fraud will persist until OLAF is reformed to be more transparent and authoritative — a difficult task for a fractious European Union, the constituent parts of which are constantly at odds with one another. Lead Analyst: Julien Freund Production Editor: Lynn Wise
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