[Interview] 2018: Juncker: Far-right ‘by no means had an opportunity’ towards the EU

On his desk is an empty however used ashtray, scattered paperwork, a light-weight blue tie, and a bottle of water. Behind him, cabinets stacked with books.

Juncker had put aside a while to debate with EUobserver the rise and fall of the far-right over the previous few years.

He as soon as famously slapped Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban (in jest) on digital camera, after which referred to as him a dictator.

“I was always calling him privately ‘dictator’ and so when he came in the room I said ‘dictator’ and he was used to that,” Juncker stated.

“He is not a dictator in the real sense of the word, of course. But he is far-right.”

During his tenure as fee head, the far-right populist political events gained in energy.

Donald Trump entered workplace as US president in January 2017, invigorating actions in Europe.

That identical month leaders from Austria’s Freedom Party, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, the Czech Republic’s Dawn of Direct Democracy, and Italy’s Northern League, amongst others, pledged an alliance. It rapidly unravelled.

But Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Austria’s Freedom Party quickly rose to heights of public assist seldom beforehand seen.

France’s far-right Marine Le Pen then confronted off with Emmanuel Macron in a bid to turn out to be president that very same yr. She misplaced.

Yet 2018 nonetheless managed to consolidate the far-right in ways in which may now not be ignored.

In June, the Northern League’s Matteo Salvini was sworn in as Italy’s deputy prime minister and minister of the inside.

He had entered right into a shaky coalition authorities with the populist Five Star Movement, on the again of demonising migrants and immigration.

“The day he [Salvini] became a coalition partner in Italy, it took away from his erotic influence on others,” stated Juncker.

For Juncker, the far-right was a short-lived risk regardless of the massive variety of MEPs of comparable political stripes elected to the European Parliament.

“They never had a chance to change European policies,” he stated of Salvini and others like him.

Juncker extends that evaluation to Nigel Farage, the then-MEP who had helped usher the UK out of the European Union.

“I had fights with Farage, I liked him as a person,” he stated.

But he notes Farage’s motion was restricted to Britain, and that he had little, if any assist, contained in the European Parliament.

The AfD has since imploded and Austria’s Freedom Party’s stint in authorities collapsed within the wake of political scandals.

Salvini, in addition to the Dutch firebrand nationalist Geert Wilders, have since became historic footnotes.

Out of the bunch, Le Pen stays an outlier, nonetheless eyeing the French presidency.

For Juncker, the true risk to the European Union by no means got here from the far-right. Instead, it’s rooted within the rule of legislation.

Much like with Farage, Juncker acquired together with folks politically against him, in international locations the place the rule of legislation was being undermined.

He held conferences with leaders of the ‘Visegrad Four’ international locations, composed of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

“I had huge debates with them, bringing them together and often at the eve of the European Council,” Juncker stated.

“There was not war – but no common ground,” he stated.

Poland and Hungary would accuse the Juncker fee of unfairly signalling them out for political causes.

“I have introduced more infringement procedures against Germany than any other member state and they are a Christian Democratic ruled country,” countered Juncker.

The animosity towards the fee unfold onto the streets of Hungary.

The Orban authorities had plastered photographs of Juncker and US billionaire philanthropist George Soros everywhere in the nation.

Orban sought to depict the 2 males as behind a mass migration plot geared toward destroying the ‘white Christian’ European id.

“I was not really happy about these posters, but I didn’t take this too seriously,” stated Juncker.

When he was Luxembourg’s prime minister, he added, he had even met with Soros on Orban’s advice.

“He [Orban] doesn’t remember that he was the one asking me to have a meeting with Soros back in my prime minister’s time. So he has changed. I didn’t,” Juncker concluded.