“My impression is that the reason why we see this behavior is because they fear getting trapped and overcome by the far right,” Ribera said.
Speaking in the Spanish delegation offices at the European Council building in Brussels, she accused the EPP of a “populist style, connected to what Trump may represent” and said the center right had become “something we cannot recognize.”
She said that any attempt to steal votes from the far right would only serve to reinforce the messages and support of far-right parties — which, according to polls, are set to make large gains in the election. Ribera pointed to France, where the conservative Les Républicains have been supplanted by Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS
For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.
“They tried to emulate the far right to avoid the far right. At the end, everybody goes towards the far right,” Ribera said.
EPP officials rejected the populist tag in interviews with POLITICO, framing their retreat on some green files as a response to legitimate concerns about their burden — especially in rural communities. The EPP remains wholly committed to the EU’s effort to neutralize its carbon emissions by 2050, they said.
“Even if we are for the Paris Agreement, we can disagree with some specific measures,” said Peter Liese, a German conservative European Parliament member, referencing the 2015 accord to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius. “To go against CO2 cars is possible without destroying the whole picture.”
