The new European platform for leftist parties – ‘European Left Alliance for the Planet and the People’ – mainly consists of members and observers from the Party of the European Left.
The ‘European Left Alliance for the Planet and the People‘ presented its priorities in the European Parliament on Tuesday, but its founding members are divided on military aid to Ukraine.
The new political party, launched in September, is now ready to act as an “alternative to what the neoliberal forces in the EU are proposing,” said its representatives during a press briefing in Brussels.
ELA includes La France insoumise, Spain’s Podemos, Finland’s Vasemmistoliitto, Portugal’s Bloco de Esquerda, Denmark’s Enhedslisten, Sweden’s Vänsterpartiet, and Poland’s Razem. It embraces all the traditional leftist stances: more social and gender equality, ambitious green policies, and the defence of workers’, women’s, and LGBT rights.
A New Platform for the European Left
Two of these political parties, Bloco de Esquerda and Enhedslisten, were former members of the Party of the European Left (PEL), while others, like Podemos and La France Insoumise, were ‘observer members’.
“Our intention is precisely to reunite the left and not to divide it,” said La France Insoumise’s Manon Aubry. “We want a left that is fit for purpose, a green left alliance that meets the expectations of the 21st century.”
She and other politicians claimed they split from the PEL seeking “a different way to act”, and that they considered that the PEL was not sufficiently engaged with ordinary citizens.
The new alliance claims to have attracted political forces previously untied to parties, such as the Swedish. Other parties are “in discussions” to join the alliance, Aubry claimed, without elaborating more than that “members of the Greens and Socialists could be interested.” One of the parties in negotiations is expected to be Sinistra Italiana, currently an observer member of the PEL, sources in the EP told Euronews.
Nonetheless, ELA considers itself an “open cooperation platform” and does not intend to create a new group in the European Parliament. It is content to leave its MEPs in the Left group (currently, the European Left Alliance for the Planet and the People comprises seven parties and 18 MEPs, not enough to reach the threshold to form a new group alone).
War in Ukraine: An Unresolved Issue
ELA members have reached an agreement over certain issues – prominently the war in Ukraine – over which there was disagreement within the PEL.
“We condemn Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine. We underline Ukraine’s right to defend itself and call for support for Ukraine,” said Malin Björk from Vänsterpartiet.
The parties of ELA have broadly agreed to support Ukraine, but some differences remain. “What we agree on is that we are committed to a just peace and to a just rebuilding of Ukraine. Our ideas about the paths to peace might be slightly different,” said Zofia Malisz from the Polish party Razem.
Her political force, along with those from the Nordic countries, strongly favour sending military aid to Ukraine.
By contrast Spain’s Podemos has always opposed this. “We advocate for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” said Spanish MEP Irene Montero. “A coalition of Socialists, Greens, and right-wing parties supports military installations and brings us closer to direct confrontation between nuclear powers.”
However, Manon Aubry summarized the alliance’s position on geopolitical issues as an “anti-NATO coalition”, which received approval from all her colleagues, saying: “What we are working on is an alternative proposal to the EU defence system. For now, it is fully aligned with NATO principles, objectives, and therefore with the US.”
Aubry also expressed pride in the Left group being outside the coalition supporting Ursula von der Leyen and in vocal opposition to other leftist forces in the European Parliament. “The Greens and the Socialists have accepted the von der Leyen coalition. That probably is the most far-right commission you’ve ever seen in history.”
She accused the Socialist and Democrats group of having put forward many of the policies that ELA criticized in the previous legislature. The revision of the Growth and Stability Pact and the Pact on Migration and Asylum were co-written by Socialist rapporteurs, she said, also highlighting S&D’s support for free trade agreements and the “climate ambition constantly being taken down.”
