EU Parliament | The Left Alliance continues in the former group – Perusfinomaliket is avoiding the Orbán problem

Left Alliance still sticks to the left-wing group of the EU Parliament, although some of the Russia sympathizers of the past election period also continue there.

The basic Finns, on the other hand, seem to avoid the worst Russian problem that threatened the party, because Hungary Viktor Orbán Fidesz is pushing a new group into parliament.

Chairman of the Left Alliance Lee Andersson tells STT that the minimum requirements for joining the group presented by the leftist union were fulfilled. The composition of the group was about the German left-wing nationalist Sahra Wagenknecht party as well as the Irish Clare Daly and Mick Wallace are not part of the group.

“And everyone is now committed to condemning the war of aggression and also Ukraine’s right to territorial integrity,” says Andersson.

Among the organized groups in the Parliament, the most Russia sympathizers were in the far-right and far-right Identity and Democracy group and the left.

From the Left Alliance became Finland’s second largest party in the European Parliament in June’s EU elections as a result of Andersson’s unprecedented victory. He received almost 250,000 votes, which is Finland’s record in EU elections.

Andersson says that the left-wing group in the parliament has different views on foreign and security policy. He describes the left-wing parties of Southern Europe as following a very strong peace-mindedness and policy, which can be seen especially in their attitude towards armed support for Ukraine.

The Left Alliance, on the other hand, will strengthen cooperation with the group’s Nordic parties, he says.

“That’s also why we are all consistently in favor of this armed support.”

In practice, cooperation means joint opinion writings and events, raising the need for Ukraine’s armed support, demands for the tightening of the sanctions policy, and possibly also questions related to Ukraine’s EU membership in the coming years. According to the preliminary agreement, the Nordic organizations will also hire a person from a left-wing NGO from Ukraine.

Finland was also elected to parliament from the ranks of the left-wing coalition Merja Kyllönen and Jussi Saramo. The left took the election defeat in the entire parliament, but Saramo believes that the group’s strong renewal will bring new opportunities.

“If you want to raise something, the green emphasis will be strengthened,” he says.

Online magazine Politico figured it out around the time of the EU elections in June, who were the strongest supporters of Russia in the parliament during the past election period. The report had examined voting in 16 polls dealing with Russia and Ukraine, with the help of which the newspaper listed 30 of Russia’s top supporters.

For example, the votes of the Russian opposition leader were included To Alexei Navalny poisoning and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

The most supporters of Russia were in the far-right Identity and Democracy group (ID), the left wing of the parliament (GUE/NGL) and non-aligned. There were 12 parliamentarians from the ID group and nine from the left on the list.

In the coming term, seven members of the left-wing group who ended up on the list will no longer continue in parliament. The Belgian will continue in Parliament Marc Botenga and Czech Katerina Konecna.

According to Andersson, the drop or dropping of the seven persons in question from the parliament sends a message about how the citizens have viewed the line.

“Hopefully this would be seen more generally this season in that the line would be more consistent and clearer,” he says.

Saramo thinks that in Finland, for example, double standards have been seen in the foreign affairs committee, for example, in handling the military actions of Israel and some other countries. According to him, the thinking of some of Europe’s left-wing parliamentarians has been so distorted that Russia should not be judged because of double standards.

“There is no logic in that. In our opinion, everyone should be treated equally. Violations should not be accepted from anyone.”

Neither the home group of fundamental Finns, i.e. the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) does not get a completely clean slate from the Russia votes. There is a Greek in Politico’s listing Emmanouil Fragkoswhich was also voted into parliament for the upcoming election term.

For a long time it seemed that Hungarian Prime Minister Orban’s Fidesz party might also join the same group as the basic Finns. However, Fidesz is now pushing a whole new right-wing group into the parliament with the Czech Ano and the Austrian Freedom Party. So the basic Finns seem to avoid that problem.

In terms of seriousness, Fidesz would have been a groupmate in a class of its own compared to the awkward groupmates of other Finnish parties.

In the EU’s common foreign and security policy, power is primarily exercised by the member states of the Union and not by the European Parliament. Hungarian Prime Minister Orban and Fidesz have caused serious rhythm disturbances in the Union in terms of support for Ukraine and actions against Russia’s war of aggression. From the European Parliament, one party cannot do such damage.