by RogueTrooper
Thu Dec 15th, 2005 at 11:19:56 AM EST
During the recent Conservative Party leadership campaign David Cameron, the eventual winner, pledged to pull the Tories' MEP out of the EPP-ED Grouping. He did this to buy support from the Eurosceptic wing of the Party - I know, I know they are all Europhobic - by Eurosceptic Tories I mean single issue obsessives. Anyhoo, this should get the very crazy wing of the British Conservative Party frothing at the mouth. From The Guardian
Angela Merkel, Germany's new chancellor, has made her first intervention in British politics by issuing a veiled warning to David Cameron to pull back from abandoning the main centre-right grouping in the European parliament.
Days after Kenneth Clarke accused the new Tory leader of embracing the "head-banging tendency" in Strasbourg, Mrs Merkel has written to Mr Cameron to make clear she expects him to remain in the EPP-ED grouping.
"I look forward to good and intensive cooperation with you, in particular within the framework of the EPP-ED as a clear base for our bilateral dialogue as partners," Mrs Merkel wrote. "I wish you all the best for the tasks that lie ahead."
2pm
Merkel warns Cameron over MEP plans
Nicholas Watt, European editor
Thursday December 15, 2005
Angela Merkel, Germany's new chancellor, has made her first intervention in British politics by issuing a veiled warning to David Cameron to pull back from abandoning the main centre-right grouping in the European parliament.
Days after Kenneth Clarke accused the new Tory leader of embracing the "head-banging tendency" in Strasbourg, Mrs Merkel has written to Mr Cameron to make clear she expects him to remain in the EPP-ED grouping.
"I look forward to good and intensive cooperation with you, in particular within the framework of the EPP-ED as a clear base for our bilateral dialogue as partners," Mrs Merkel wrote. "I wish you all the best for the tasks that lie ahead."
The carefully worded intervention is a shot across the bows to warn Mr Cameron that the Tories' relations with Europe's largest country will plummet if he carries out his threat.
Her intervention will strengthen the hand of pro-European Tories who are dismayed by Mr Cameron's pledge to pull out of the EPP-ED grouping on the grounds that it is fiercely pro-European.
Now, the next part is quite interesting. The sort of parties the Eurosceptic right expect Cameron's Conservatives to hang out with are a little unsavoury. Cameron has pledged to make the Conservatives more social inclusive and tolerent. Some of the homophobic opions his new friends will leave him open to accusations of moral hypocrisy.
Daniel Hannan, the hardline Eurosceptic Tory MEP, wants the party to join forces with rightwingers in eastern Europe because a grouping needs representatives from five countries to enjoy full rights.
He would like the Tories to join forces with Poland's governing Law and Justice party, whose leaders oppose gay rights and supports the death penalty.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister who is president of the Party of European Socialists in the European parliament, said: "The European right is deeply divided.
"The EPP has been in danger of splitting for years. Now it is showdown time. It looks like David Cameron's threat to take the Tories out of the EPP has resulted in a threat from Angela Merkel never to speak to them again."
Nice to see the European left shedding those crocodile tears.
