WhatsApp conversations in Brussels spark disagreement between Berlin’s chancellor and the German leader of Europe’s most powerful political group.
A right-wing Swedish MEP on Tuesday said he started a WhatsApp group with members of the main conservative faction in the European Parliament that has angered German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The news agency DPA reported that staff from the center-right European People’s Party, the largest in the Parliament and home to both Merz and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, had been using group chats to coordinate with right-wing and far-right groups ahead of a vote on tightening migration rules.
The EPP last year began voting with the far right in Parliament, breaking the so-called cordon sanitaire, the informal pact between Europe’s centrist forces — the EPP, the Socialists and Democrats, the liberals of Renew, and the Greens — to keep the far right out of decision-making. The EPP maintains that it is not actively negotiating with far-right parties, saying it has merely outlined its positions and hopes to secure support with broader right-wing backing.
Reports on the group chat annoyed Merz, who told reporters Monday: “I want to make this very clear: We do not cooperate with the far right in the European Parliament.”
He added that “the EPP group leader also knows that we do not want this cooperation.” The EPP leader in question is fellow German Manfred Weber. “This will be stopped and … there will be consequences if necessary. Manfred Weber now bears responsibility for this,” Merz added.
Weber did not respond to a request for comment. He has been quoted by German media outlets as saying that he didn’t know about the group chat and had not authorized it.
On Tuesday, Charlie Weimers of the Sweden Democrats, which is part of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group, wrote on social media: “The WhatsApp group was started by my office. As negotiator for the ECR I pushed for all groups right of centre to be included in the negotiations and shared with them the Council’s compromise texts long before the final position became public.”
He added that “by working together, the ECR, Patriots for Europe, Europe of Sovereign Nations and the EPP secured a proposal that gives member states tools that would increase return rates: hubs outside the Union, extend of detention of illegals to 24 months including unlimited detention for those posing a security risk, mutual recognition of return decisions, and stricter sanctions.”
The Europe of Sovereign Nations group is home to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Last November, the center-right, right-wing and far-right groups allied to pass the EU’s first omnibus simplification package, exempting more companies from green reporting rules.