Move to expel Italian MEPs from Liberals

Date: 26/09/1996

By Ivo Ilic Gabara

FIVE Italian Northern League MEPs are facing expulsion from the European Parliament's Liberal Group unless they renounce their controversial party's secessionist goals.

The move to rein in Northern League leader Umberto Bossi and his four colleagues is being led by the head of the Italian Republican Party, Giorgio La Malfa.

Ironically, it was La Malfa who brought the five MEPs into the European Liberal Democratic and Reformist Group (ELDR) in the first place. Now, regretting that he sponsored Bossi's affiliation two years ago, La Malfa has raised the alleged incompatibility of the League's goals and methods with the ELDR's guiding principles and has asked his party to request formally that the Liberals reconsider Bossi's membership of the group.

La Malfa wants the five League members to publicly disown the Northern League's secessionist goals. If they do not, he will argue that they should be expelled from the group.

The Italian Republican leader has strongly denounced the League's secessionist ambitions, its espousal of “illegal political methods” and frequent disregard for democratic pluralism.

La Malfa's concerns are echoed by others, in particular by Dutch D'66 and Austrian Liberal Forum MEPs.

ELDR President Dutch MEP Gijs de Vries acknowledges that the issue is both serious and sensitive, and is planning to write to Bossi asking him to come to Brussels to provide “urgent” clarification of the League's political choices.

De Vries considers the League's green shirts to be a “decidedly wrong symbol” and is concerned about its recent actions. He will therefore appeal to the League's members to “reassess where they are going”.

In the light of their response, the ELDR will consider what to do next.

The ELDR leader agrees that many of the League's objectives are legitimate and in line with the policies of his group. The call for decentralisation of the state's powers, as well as the need for fiscal relaxation and to end, once and for all, the “tangentopoli” corruption scandals are all justified and legitimate - but all these goals must be pursued with respect for the law.

This will be one of the issues on which Bossi will have to take a clear stand, according to de Vries. Failure to do so would inevitably raise the possibility of the five League members being expelled from the ELDR.

The ELDR could do so at little if any political cost, as it would still remain the fourth largest political group within the European Parliament and its speaking time or voting rights would therefore not be significantly affected.

Even the financial loss would be limited. The loss of five out of its current 52 members could be safely estimated at 240,000 ecu per year in subsidies for the running of the group's secretariat.

Most ELDR members would regard this as a fair price to pay, if needs be, to safeguard the group's credibility.