Before our conference in Milan on 14 January, our Secretary General was interviewed by AdnKronos.
EPP with ECR? Without us, Without Renew/EDP”.
If the European People’s Party, with Manfred Weber and Antonio Tajani, is aiming for an alliance with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the next legislature, “good luck”, but Renew and the European Democrats will not be part of it. And “does everyone in the EPP really agree” with the prospect of an alliance with the Right? This is what Sandro Gozi, MEP for Renew Europe and Secretary General of the European Democratic Party, points out to Adnkronos. He will take part in a meeting on the challenges of liberal democracy in Europe with Matteo Renzi and Carlo Calenda tomorrow in Milan at the San Fedele auditorium, via Hoepli 3/b, from 10.30am to 6pm. Although many predict a shift to the right of the hemicycle after the 2024 European elections, Sandro Gozi says he sees “the next Renew Europe legislature very well”. We have already made a difference in this legislature: we are the real political game changer and I am convinced that we can grow in numbers and influence in the 2024 elections. We focus on promoting Renew Europe in the different Member States. This is where the event we promoted with the EDP and Renew in Milan comes in, because we believe that in countries like Italy and Poland we can make big progress in 2024. And we want to grow the democratic and liberal proposal of the Europe of renewal”. Sandro Gozi, who was elected in France, rejects the hypothesis that the Democrats and Liberals of Renew could ally themselves with the European People’s Party and the ECR: “As far as Manfred Weber’s Roman visits and Antonio Tajani’s interviews are concerned,” he replies, “we say ‘don’t even think about it’. We say no to political alliances with the post-Francoists of Vox, the post-fascists of Fratelli d’Italia, the Swedish right-wing extremists, the Bulgarians who make the Roman salute in the hemicycle. If this drift to the far right is the future that Weber and Tajani have chosen for the EPP, good luck. But we won’t be there.
We don’t see any evolution in the FDI
In Brussels, a ‘skimming’ of the right has been going on for some time, and the process has accelerated with the war in Ukraine, with the pro-Atlantic party, the Poles of the PiS (ECR group) in the lead, dialoguing with the traditional parties: ‘We – Sandro Gozi observes – do not see these changes. Of course, full support to Poland, Romania and all the countries that are making a great effort to support the Ukrainians’ battle for freedom. But this does not prevent the Polish Prime Minister from saying that he is in favour of the reintroduction of the death penalty. So much the better if Giorgia Meloni confirms and gives new weapons to Kiev, the sooner the better, but we, to Fratelli d’Italia, have not seen this development that so many people are talking about. It seems to us, she added, that on immigration, on the rule of law, on fundamental values, on European alliances, Fratelli d’Italia is what we have always seen. They confirmed the Draghi line on the budget simply because they can’t do anything else: and it’s a good thing they can’t do what they want to do on the economy too. If the whole EPP really thinks it’s the right choice to go for the ECR and ID, good luck. This is one more reason why Renew should grow. If the party of De Gasperi and Schuman is thinking of building political alliances with ECR and ID, it means that we are right to say that we have to go beyond the old political distinctions and build a new, strong pro-European, central grand alliance. This is what we want to do.
With the rightward shift of the EPP, there is room in the centre for Renew Europe: “Absolutely yes,” says Sandro Gozi, “it’s not for me to say what the EPP will do, I read what Manfred Weber and Antonio Tajani say. So I ask myself: does everyone in the EPP really want this drift to the far right? I find it hard to believe, but I have to note that Weber and Tajani seem to be working for this perspective. If Antonio Tajani would concentrate on his role as foreign minister, since we haven’t had one for years, it might be better. These are the things we will say tomorrow in Milan.
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Gozi
Secretary General
France
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Sandro Gozi to Vučić: “Serbia cannot join Europe with repression and lies”
The Secretary General of the European Democratic Party and Member of the European Parliament with Renew Europe, Sandro Gozi, has published an open letter to the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, with a copy to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The initiative follows Vučić’s letter sent to Brussels on 21 August, in which he accused Serbian students and demonstrators of violence, reversing the truth and blaming the victims of repression.
In his statement, Gozi denounces the hundreds of arrests of students and peaceful citizens, the use of a sonic cannon (LRAD) during the March protest in Novi Sad, the shocking video of students forced to their knees and filmed by police, the violent arrests of women and even minors, and the attack on press freedom with intimidation against N1, documented by OCCRP/KRIK.
Gozi stresses that it is not citizens who endanger Serbia’s European path, but President Vučić and his government. By resorting to repression, false narratives and attacks on fundamental freedoms, they are undermining the credibility and the European future of the country.
Open Letter
To the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić
with a copy to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen
President Vučić,
Your letter of 21 August addressed to President von der Leyen is a masterpiece of hypocrisy. But facts, numbers and images tell another story.
In recent months, hundreds of people have been arrested in Serbia, including students and peaceful citizens. Many of them remain in prison today, facing charges that are essentially political. In practice, this undermines their freedom of expression and discourages democratic participation. It is not the citizens who are destabilising the country: it is your government, repressing the right to protest.
In March, during a commemoration in Novi Sad, a sonic cannon (LRAD) was used against demonstrators, A weapon, capable of provoking harsh pain, panic and permanent hearing damage. A practice that has nothing to do with the european standards you claim to embrace.
On 15 August, a video showed fifteen young people forced to their knees against a wall, filmed by police officers. An act of public humiliation, in total contempt for human dignity and contrary to every democratic standard.
And this was not an isolated case: in those same days, other footage and testimonies clearly showed worrying heavy-handed arrests, with students dragged to the ground, women and even minors treated without regard for their rights.
While students are beaten and arrested, citizens have witnessed violent groups apparently close to your party moving about undisturbed.
This selective tolerance raises serious concerns of rule of law.
Equally serious is the attack on freedom of information. N1, a news channel belonging to United Media (United Group), has been the target of a campaign of intimidation and pressure documented in recordings published by OCCRP/KRIK. You know perfectly well that silencing the last independent broadcaster means suffocating truth and pluralism.
President Vučić, it is not the youth, it is not the citizens, it is not the demonstrators who are jeopardising the European path of Serbia: Serbia belongs to Europe. But it is you — with your policies, your denyal your statements — which are undermining the credibility and the european path of your country.
Your accusations against Nikolina Sindjelić are embarrassing . The evidence shows that threats, unlawful arrests and violence have indeed taken place: personal attacks do not erase reality.
Your letter must therefore be sent back to the sender.
Serbian citizens deserve much better and Europe is something else: freedom, dignity, democracy.
EDP Hosts Transatlantic Dialogue on the Future of Centrist Politics
As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen international cooperation between democratic forces, the EDP recently hosted a transatlantic dinner discussion in Paris, bringing together key figures from European and American centrist politics.
Joint statement on the 30th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide
Thirty years ago, in Srebrenica, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered by the Bosnian Serb army. In 2007, the International Court of Justice ruled that the atrocities constituted genocide. The wider Bosnian War saw over 100,000 killed, thousands of women raped, and more than two million people forced from their homes between 1992 and 1995. On this solemn occasion remembering one of the darkest chapters in Europe’s recent history, the ALDE Party, LIBSEEN members in the region, ALDE in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, European Democratic Party, Liberal International, LYMEC, Renew Europe in the Committee of the Regions, Renew Europe in the European Parliament, and the Young Democrats for Europe are united in honouring their memory and issue the following statement:
