28 January 2024
Terry Reintke unhesitatingly describes some EU lawmakers with anti-European and far-right views as fascists. Her directness stands in sharp contrast to bland circumlocutions more common to Brussels. Now Terry, a German who co-heads the Greens in the European Parliament, wants the chamber to launch an inquiry into whether its extreme right Identity and Democracy Group, or ID Group, adheres to European values. That inquiry, she says, should run in parallel to efforts in Germany to determine whether to ban one of the ID Group’s main members, the Alternative for Germany. Terry made her proposal on Thursday, on the same day Marine Le Pen sought to put some distance between her far-right Rassemblement National and the ID Group. Terry’s proposal and Le Pen’s jitters come against the backdrop of mass demonstrations in Germany against the AfD. The demonstrations were prompted by a report that AfD members discussed deportations of non-assimilated people and of those with non-German backgrounds in what amounted to a disturbing echo of Nazi-era practices. The EU-level inquiry proposed by Terry would be based on Article 2 of the EU treaty. Any findings leading to restrictions or a ban on the ID Group would need to stand up in court, says Terry, who is widely expected to be a lead candidate in upcoming European elections. Also in this conversation: Terry discusses the basis of her antifascism; her vulnerability as a highly visible lesbian politician; how to manage conflicting priorities between Berlin and Brussels; and the divide with the US Green party over Ukraine.
