Swedes may split Left

Date: 12/10/1995

By Fiona McHugh

ANTI-EU Swedish MEPs took up their seats in Strasbourg this week amid predictions that their success at the polls could backfire on far-left groups in the assembly.

Almost half of the 22 Euro MPs sent to the European Parliament by the Swedish electorate last month campaigned on a strongly negative platform, successfully exploiting widespread disappointment with membership of the bloc among the Swedish voters.

Once again, the result slightly shifted power away from the Parliament's two dominant groups - the Socialists and the European People's Party - towards smaller groups, with impressive gains for both the Green and Left parties.

Both groups have claimed the result will give them added political clout in the European Parliament, which they intend to use to the full. But even as they celebrated their newly-swollen ranks, commentators were warning that the result might actually split both groups in two, weakening rather than strengthening their influence.

All of the new Left and Green members are against EU membership and this, commentators say, may provoke clashes between pro- and anti-European elements.

Claudia Roth, leader of the Greens, is keen to play down these rumours. “For me there is not a contradiction. The Green group is in favour of European integration but often disagrees with EU policy,” she said.

Stellan Hermansson, Swedish Left Party political secretary, confirmed that the Left Group would probably split into two camps.

“Most of the Left confederation is in favour of a federal Europe so we do have a difference of opinion. But since we are not forced to vote together, I think we can live with that contradiction,” he said, stressing the Swedes' independence from the larger European Group.

“Most Spanish left-wingers lived under the Franco dictatorship so for them the EU is a guarantee against fascism. But we have a long tradition of democracy and for us membership is a step back.”

“We opposed membership, but since we lost we must now work within the EU structure to block federalism,” he said, adding that Swedish Euro-scepticism should not be put on a par with nationalist British, French and Italian brands.

“We are not fighting the EU from a chauvinistic point of view but from a pro-democratic one. We are simply trying to recoup some of the power lost to Brussels where secret meetings are the norm.”

Other MEPs insist they are unruffled by the result. The arrival of a new band of anti-European members is unlikely to dampen the pro-EU mood of the assembly, they say.

“Let's face it, they are small in number and unlikely to have an enormous impact,” said Tony Robinson, spokesman for the Parliament's largest group, the Socialists.

“They will have to come to terms with the fact that the rest of the group takes a positive view of the Union and adapt to it,” said Robinson, adding that the three new Euro-sceptic Swedes in his group would probably be converted. His opinion was echoed by a spokesman for the European People's Party.