Why Europe’s far right is breaking apart from the inside

Good morning. Last night at the Bruegel-FT European elections leaders’ debate, lead candidates from the largest EU parties clashed over economic issues from whether to join a trade war against China to the size of the next EU budget. Watch it back here.

Today, our elections correspondent and Paris bureau chief bring you details of the fracturing of the far-right tent, while our man in the Balkans reports on the fallout from a Kosovan crackdown on a Serbian bank.

Things fall apart

The far right might be rising in polls ahead of European elections next month, but it has been deflated by an old weakness — factional rivalry, write Leila Abboud and Andy Bounds.

Context: Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) has ditched its German ally, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). A spokesman for the RN’s European elections campaign said yesterday that they would no longer “sit in the same parliamentary group” with the AfD after the elections. Both currently are both part of the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in parliament.

The decision comes after months of brewing concerns in Le Pen’s party that the AfD was becoming too extreme, starting with a leaked plan in January to deport people with immigrant backgrounds, including German passport holders.

Then Maximilian Krah, the lead candidate for the AfD’s campaign, told the FT that members of the SS, which ran Adolf Hitler’s extermination camps, were not all criminals.

Le Pen has spent more than a decade seeking to “detoxify” the image of the party founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was convicted of hate speech for denying the Holocaust. Her efforts have largely paid off: the RN is riding high in the polls ahead of the European vote on June 6-9, after it won an unprecedented 88 MPs in France’s 2022 national elections.

If Le Pen is to achieve her dream of becoming French president in 2027, when Emmanuel Macron cannot run because of term limits, she needs to attract more voters by appearing capable, serious and unthreatening.

The break-up may also pave the way for a recomposition of rightwing and far-right parties in the EU parliament.

In a television interview this week, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated her hope of uniting Europe’s various right-wing parties at the EU level. Meloni, whose party sits in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, had previously ruled out any union with the AfD as simply not viable. 

Meanwhile Anders Vistisen, lead candidate for ID, told the FT on the sidelines of last night’s debate that the AfD would have to “explain themselves”, and suggested Krah step down.

Chart du jour: Decoupling

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Divergent economic positions in the US and Europe mean the approach of central banks should be radically different, argues Chris Giles.

Shutting down

The EU and the US yesterday condemned Kosovo’s crackdown on a Serb bank in a show of western exasperation at Pristina’s unilateral moves that are seen hurting the ethnic Serb community, writes Marton Dunai.

Context: Kosovo broke off from Serbia unilaterally 16 years ago in a move that Belgrade never accepted from its former province. Violent tensions have flared up regularly in the years since, including a fatal stand-off in the ethnic Serb northern part of Kosovo last year. The EU has consistently demanded that both sides try to calm tensions.

Pristina has doubled down on an effort to reaffirm control over areas where the ethnic Serb control was firm before, imposing financial limits on the use of the dinar, mandating instead the euro, Kosovo’s currency of choice. (The small Balkan nation is not a member of the Eurozone.)

Acting on an authorisation from Kosovo’s chief prosecutor, heavily armed police on Monday forced the closure of six branches of the Serbian Postal Savings Bank, which have been instrumental in operating the finances of ethnic Serb areas, where many people are still reliant on the Serbian dinar.

“Monday’s operation proves again that Kosovo authorities prioritise unilateral and uncoordinated actions rather than co-operation with its friends and allies,” the EU diplomatic service said in a statement.

The US also decried the move, saying it “undermines perceptions of Kosovo’s good faith in resolving outstanding issues with Serbia through the EU-facilitated Dialogue”.

Kosovo police in a statement said the bank branches “have operated illegally,” adding that the action “so far has passed without any problems or incidents. The purpose of the police operation is to establish order and legality”.

Serbs in Kosovo have said the crackdown on the use of the dinar has dramatically impacted their livelihoods.

What to watch today

1. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock hosts her French and Polish counterparts, Stéphane Séjourné and Radosław Sikorski, for a Weimar Triangle meeting.

2. Baltic defence ministers meet in Vilnius, Lithuania.

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• Klaus Schwab: The founder of World Economic Forum is to step down after turning the must-attend conference into a €500mn business.