BE considers absurd attempt to ban Left Alliance

“Hto the extreme right-wing groups that have several problems with Justice and I think there is an attempt to say: ‘this is not only on the far right, there is everywhere’. It is one of those absurd attempts,” Catherine Martins criticised in statements to the Lusa agency in the margins of the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The MEP of BE and Co-President of the European Left Alliance (ELA) reacted to the fact that the Group of European Reformists and Conservatives (ECR) is collecting signatures to request the ban on ELA.

To Lusa, Catherine Martins indicated that the charge that is made by the ECR is that the French party France Unsubmissive, which belongs to the alliance, supports the demands of students who have manifested themselves in recent weeks in France.

“ These demands are defended by the majority of French trade unions, by teachers, by lawyers who are organizing themselves to defend students, by health professionals who go to demonstrations to try to defend students from the police charges absolutely disproportionate and violent to which we have seen ", he said.

Catarina Martins stated that “the left is accused of being left and of being next to those who want better education, because that is completely true”.

“ But if I can fight for good education, fighting democratically is a European value, quality education is also a European value. We are very proud of it,” he said.

The political group of European Reformists and Conservatives is collecting signatures to request the ban on ELA, which includes Portuguese BE, accusing it of “promoting political violence” through the student movement in France.

In statements to Lusa this Tuesday, ECR Vice President Charlie Weimers explained that he decided to initiate this process after last week the French Government indicated that he received intelligence from the secret services that the French Unsubmissive Party, which belongs to the ELA, would be behind the student protest movement.

“ These demonstrations have led to urban violence and, as the rules of European political parties indicate that these parties must act in line with European values, including the rule of law, I propose that the European Parliament ask the Authority for European political parties to assess whether the European Left Alliance respects these values or if it is violating them,” said the Swedish MEP.

In order for this initiative to be voted on in plenary, the ECR will have to gather 180 signatures from three different political groups by 16 October.

If you can get your signatures together, this initiative will then be voted in plenary session on 19 October in Brussels.

In case of approval, the Authority for the Political Parties Europeans must assess whether the European Left Alliance complies with the values set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (EU), namely respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law.

If that authority finds that there has been a “serious and manifest violation” of these values – which has never happened – it may decide to cancel the European Left Alliance register as a European political party, causing it to lose access to Community funding.

The ELA was founded in 2024 – BE was one of the founders – and currently it is composed of nine parties, including Unsubmissive France, the Spanish of Podemos or the Italian Left.