Manfred Weber, the Spitzenkandidat of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), currently the largest party in the European Parliament, spoke with N1’s Ivana Dragicevic on Saturday in the final stretch of the EU election campaign, where he ruled out future cooperation with Europe’s right-wing parties.
“EPP is the party of Europe,” Weber said. “Right-wing populists and extremists are those who want to destroy Europe, who are not believing any more in partnership on this continent and we will fight against them.”
Weber commented on the wave of right wing populist parties who are hoping to score large gains in the EP election this week, and who have organised a rally in Milan, Italy on Saturday. Their goal, according to Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen, is for their EP parliamentary group, Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), to become the third largest in Brussels.
Currently ENF is the smallest in the EP, with only 36 seats in the 751-seat parliament.
Weber also talked about why he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined Croatian Prime Minister Plenković at the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union’s (HDZ) election rally in Zagreb on Saturday.
Watch the full interview below: