EU President Calls Far-Right Parties "Putin's Proxies" | Vantage with Palki Sharma

Nathan's biggest rival is not Hamas it's probably elections and that's where Europe is heading towards a continent-wide general election it happens every 5 years this one is scheduled for early next month citizens of the European Union will vote for MEPS that's members of European Parliament MEPS and these MEPS are very powerful they approve the EU budget they debate new policies and they the EU commission president so there is a lot at stake now every election has some burning issues like inflation or jobs but in the EU Parliament it's more ideological you have different political camps the far right the Centrist the Socialists the moderates and so on polls say that the far right could make significant gains this time so EU president urula velan is firefighting she's calling the far right Putin's proxies when I see uh what your afd colleagues the lead candidates have done done they are under investigation for being in the pocket of Putin and if you look at the Electoral program you will see that it echoes the lies and the propaganda of the Kremlin so clean up your house before you criticize [Applause] us two factors to note here one Putin looms large over these elections his war in Ukraine is a key campaign issue and there's a reason why traditionally the EU has been controlled by two groups the centrists and the Socialists and they oppose Putin's war in Ukraine they also Advocate more aid for Kiev so the current EU policy was designed by them but the far right says forget that taking on Putin is costing Europe Energy prices are higher inflation is higher and money is being burnt on military aid so the far right says reduce support for Ukraine maybe even reset things with Putin hence V's criticism which brings us to the second Factor the far ride is making inroads these parties are expected to Finish First in nine EU Nations including in France Austria and Poland they could also finish second or third in nine countries so the Dynamics are clearly changing by June the EU Parliament could look very different centrists and socialists out a right-wing Coalition in and Putin knows that he's tightening the screws on European companies many of them have subsidiaries in Russia so MOS is taking them over two such instances have been reported one by an Italian water heating company and the second by a German Appliance maker both of them had local Wings in Russia but last week Vladimir Putin signed an executive order he put both these subsidiaries under Russian control now Germany and Italy have protested this they say Russia's move is illegal but frankly we've moved past that Europe has frozen Russian assets parked abroad so Moscow says this is just retaliation you freeze our assets we take over yours and where does that leave Europe in a bit of a spot if anti- Ukraine parties come to power it could be game over we've seen indications of that last year Slovakia elected a new government a right-wing populist became the Prime Minister there and he ended military aid to Ukraine imagine this happening across Europe it could Ukraine's war effort which is why European centrists are worried we saw that desperation last week when French president Emanuel macron gave an alarm speech he warned that Europe could die but werland is choosing a different path she can't work with a far right but she's looking at less radical options like Georgia Malone of Italy she leads a right-wing party but she also supports Ukraine Malone is part of a Coalition in the EU it's called the ECR the European conservatives and reformists and V was asked if she would work with the ECR listen to her response the question was are you open to cooperation with ECR in the next mandate it depends very much on how the composition of the parliament is and who is in what group so she's open to it but either way one thing is clear this is going to be a very consequential election for Ukraine for Putin and for the future of Europe the idea of EU was to build Unity and consensus will that idea survive if EU Skeptics control Brussels we'll find out next month

Channel: Firstpost

Views: 93,600

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Id: lveqxusT6lA

Length: 4min 58sec (298 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2024