Political parties fail to bridge east-west divide

Date: 31/07/1997

By Mark Turner

AN ANGRY battle between the European People's Party and one of its sister parties in Hungary has highlighted the continued difficulties facing those championing the cause of pan-European political parties.

With the release of the Commission's Agenda 2000 report heralding imminent enlargement talks with five central European countries, the stakes have risen as MEPs look to forge long-lasting alliances for the new millennium.

But the European Parliament's political groups are still finding it difficult to secure similar-minded partners in the countries of central and eastern Europe (CEECs), where parties often tend to occupy the extremes rather than the mainstream of ideology. “It really is a problem,” said one Christian Democrat official. “Both the People's Party and the Socialists find only around 10&percent; of their possible partners are really suitable.”

In general, the Christian Democrats do not find counterparts who share the same religious but moderate approach to market economics, and are hampered by a political immaturity in right-wing parties in the CEECs which will only change with time.

Since many of the natural members of the Christian Democratic movement were kept out of politics by the old regime, they often have relatively little education and few western European languages.

To make things worse, “the younger generation often has a view that does not fulfil our ideas today,” said Wim van Velzen, Dutch head of the European Christian Democratic Union (EUCD).

European Socialists, by contrast, have to contend with old-guard Communists who, in many cases, have changed in little but name. According to critics, they sometimes show little discernment in whom they bring on board. “The Socialists accept all the nomenclature parties,” said Van Velzen.

Austrian Socialist Herbert Bösch, who heads the Parliament's Slovakia committee, admits their task is a difficult one. “It is not so easy sometimes, especially when you find Socialists connected with the former Communist parties. The distinction is not always there,” he said.

Liberals, Greens and other smaller parties have more trouble still, with some way to go before the new democracies entirely escape from the left-right, old-new dichotomies.

Earlier this month, the EUCD judged that the Hungarian party KDNP (the Christian Democratic People's Party) had 'expelled itself' from the group because of its increasingly hard-line nationalist tendencies.

The party, which had a reputation as the most moderate element of the country's 1990-1994 governing coalition, had been the natural Christian Democrat ally in Hungary since 1990.

News that the KDNP had entered into contacts with Hungarian right-wing nationalists MIEP consequently came as a shock and, following some last ditch efforts at reconciliation, led to its expulsion in July.

This resulted in a flurry of angry letters, with the Hungarian Christian Democrats remonstrating with the EUCD for its “insulting” stance, and arguing that its actions were in practice allowing the ex-Communists to gain control.

The EUCD was unrepentant. “This kind of response shows the clear hangovers from the Soviet era,” said one official. “This post-independence style of politics is still a serious concern.”

It is notable, however, that in its avis the Commission judged that only one eastern European country - Slovakia - failed to qualify for Union membership on political criteria.

Bulgaria and Romania were “on their way” to satisfying EU standards, while all other applicants showed “the characteristics of a democracy”, the report concluded.

This view reflects a tacit acceptance in Brussels that with time, the eastern political landscape - which has already made great advances - will begin to find more balance and is most likely to do so through continued support.

Poland's forthcoming elections are already showing how the 'one party per person' syndrome is giving way to more western-style alliances, which may in turn lead to more obvious allies for European Parliamentary parties.