The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has launched a motion to probe the European Left Alliance (ELA) over an alleged breach of “EU values” and support for student unrest gripping France, Politico has reported, citing an email it has obtained.
Protests have gripped the country for days and have spread to neighboring Belgium. Students are demanding increased funding for public schools and better learning conditions, including more teachers, smaller classes, and repairs to deteriorating buildings. In numerous locations, the protests turned violent, leading to the full closure of some 400 high schools and around 5,000 arrested, mostly teenagers.
The protests have been endorsed by the left-wing La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI), which instructed its officials to step in to protect students from riot police yet urged demonstrators to stay nonviolent. The French prime minister’s office, citing intelligence services, accused the party and “its far-left proxies” of organizing the violence altogether. The LFI has strongly denied allegations that it somehow initiated or orchestrated the violent unrest.
The allegations have prompted the motion, which is led by the ECR vice chair Charlie Weimers, to investigate the ELA over the alleged actions of its member, the LFI, Politico reported on Tuesday. The potential probe could ultimately result in an effective ban of the left-wing bloc, namely its deregistration and the loss of EU funding. To put the process in motion, Weimers needs to get a minimum of 180 signatures from at least three political groups within the European Parliament by next Friday. If the initiative garners enough support, the outlet expects a vote during the plenary session on October 19.
The ELA has condemned the looming action by the right-wingers, insisting it was not in breach of the bloc’s values.
“The ECR, whose own members regularly attack these very values, is abusing an EU procedure to try to avert attention from investigations of breaching EU values by the far- and extreme right,” ELA Co-President Catarina Martins said, as quoted by Politico. “Standing with young people asking for better education is not a breach of EU values,” she added.
In France, former interior minister and the leader of the Republicans (LR) party, Bruno Retailleau, called for outlawing the LFI, branding it a “seditious party” that is “fascinated by violence.” The ban demand has been dismissed by LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon as “ridiculous” and “absurd,” with the politician mockingly suggesting that the proponents of the allegations against his party apparently been using “telepathy.”
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