The Real Danger to the Planet Is Socialism”

Thierry Baudet Matt Ridley FIGHTING THE REAL THE DUTCH DANGER TO “PARTY THE PLANET CARTEL” IS SOCIALISM p.19 ACRE senior delegation at CPAC p.31 p.17 Issue #2 | March 2019 A fortnightly Newspaper by the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) | theconservative.online An Interview with ACRE’s Frateli d’Italia Spitzenkandidat Jan Zahradil ACRE GROWS ACROSS EUROPE “Our voice and vision for a reformed EU must be heard.” p.2 Alejo Vidal-Quadras CATALAN NATIONALISM, LIKE ALL NATIONALISM, With only a few months to IS ETHICALLY the European elections, in ABHORRENT Catalan nationalism is one of sep- which the Members of the aration and not of unification, as were the German, British or Italian European Parliament are nationalisms, which managed to chosen and which also – build large-scale nations merging smaller political entities. p.29 indirectly – determine who is to be the next President of the Conservative Environmentalism European Commission, we MARKET INSTITUTIONS talk to Jan Zahradil, the only NEVER EVOLVED Spitzenkandidat who – as a FOR THE matter of principle – opposes ENVIRONMENT by Fred Smith & Iain Murray p.18 the Spitzenkandidat method of choosing the top job. Spitzenkandidat JAN ZAHRADIL Before we discuss the issues, what is a political party that manages to secure the state and national governments – not the lost many opportunities to communicate Campaign Diary Spitzenkandidat and what is the Spit- largest number of seats in the next Euro- European Parliament. our programme and goals to the voters. In music the audience cannot zenkandidat process? pean Parliament will be approved by In 2014, when this process was intro- By refusing to play the game in Brussels, possibly enjoy the performance if The German word “Spitzenkandidat” the Parliament as the new Commission duced, ACRE did not nominate a Spit- we were not on a level playing field with the instruments are out of tune. may sound bizarre, but it literally trans- President. zenkandidat. We did not believe that the establishment parties. And it is the same in politics and lates as “lead candidate”. The Spitzen- the process would encourage a genuine We still stand by our principle and sup- in the EU. p.22 kandidat process is the procedure for But despite being a Spitzenkandidat debate on the future of Europe, but that port the right of the Council to nominate choosing the next President of the Euro- you are decidedly against this pro- it would assist the federalists in their its preferred candidate for the Commis- pean Commission, the post currently cess. Why? attempt to turn the Commission into a sion President. But this year ACRE also Conservative Icons held by Jean-Claude Juncker. It works Because I respect the rules. And the regular government. has nominated a Spitzenkandidat to like this: the European political parties, Treaties clearly state who is in charge of Unfortunately, by not having a lead challenge the establishment. And this is a RAYMOND ARON ahead of the European elections, appoint picking the EC President. It is the Euro- candidate, we were excluded from many serious bid with real resources. by Roger Kimball lead candidates. And the candidate of the pean Council – the summit of heads of media events and debates and thereby FULL INTERVIEW ON p.20 The fact that Aron was hated by the Left does not mean that he was a partisan of the Right. p.24 CONSERVATIVE VOX LEADING THE POPULAR ENVIRONMENTALISM PROSECUTION AGAINST Conservative Music CATALAN SEPARATIST LEADERS SCOTTISH ox has taken up the tradition Popular prosecution, as a legal proce- MUSICAL of using the right Spanish law dure, has gained popularity in the past FASCISTS V grants ordinary citizens and civil decade. For example, the leaders of the by Damian Thompson groups to file criminal complaints and party UPyD, a small centrist party that Supreme Court case in which Catalan I suspect what Shaw means – and become party to legal cases, to get trac- once had local, regional, national and separatist leaders will have to answer wants – is nationalist music. That tion in the media. The legal provision is European representation, pursued popu- for their failed secession bid. Among the describes Bartok’s early symphonic lar prosecution against Bankia, a savings charges brought against them are those known as acusación popular and roughly poem Kossuth, written when Hun- translates as popular prosecution. This bank conglomerate, that was saved from of sedition, rebellion and misappropri- gary was a Habsburg kingdom, but does not replace the formal prosecutorial bankruptcy with a loan of 20 billion euros ation of public funds. State prosecutors it sounds more like gypsified Rich- system but complements it. A citizen or from the Spanish taxpayers. will be joined in the prosecution by Vox, civil group can join in the effort to inves- In recent days, the popular prosecu- the rising conservative party led by San- ard Strauss than mature Bartok. SPECIAL FEATURE tigate whether a crime has been commit- tion procedure has once again become tiago Abascal. Stravinsky wrote none. p.29 ted and assist in its prosecution. relevant, this time in relation to the FULL ARTICLE ON p.11 2 EDITORIAL theconservative.online theconservative.online EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 3 ACRE welcomes a new member to the Conservative family Morten Messerschmidt MEP ECR Group Voters turning their backs on EU yet MEPs Debout la France and Frateli d’Italia call for further integration Forum for Democracy Fratelli d’Italia (FDI, Brothers of Italy) has become the newest member Brussels is refusing to listen to the certain countries, such as Denmark’s set to join ECR of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists in Europe. real concerns of voters, warned opt-out of the Euro, purely as a vehi- Carbon ECR MEP Morten Messerschmidt cle to allow others to integrate before after a series of votes in the all Member States eventually sign up European Parliament during the and believes a country should not be last plenary session in February. able to block such cooperation initia- tives in the Council if they are not tak- EPs were voting on pro- ing part. Also included are calls for the “EU opt-outs exist for a reason. Some posals put forward by the removal of national vetoes over taxa- countries, and their citizens, were not CAPTURE Constitutional Affairs Com- tion and foreign policy, both ideas that willing to integrate in certain areas but CONSERVATIVE CLIMATE CONSERVATION M mittee that repeated a number of pre- have been rejected on multiple occa- they were at the same time prepared vious, and already rejected, calls such as sions in Member State capitals. to allow others to do so, as long as they by Richard Milsom the removal of Member State opt-outs, Speaking after the vote, Messer- weren’t part of it. It is unacceptable that the creation of transnational election schmidt said: MEPs want to break these long estab- lists and an EU-wide ‘Europe Day’ bank “There is nothing new in these pro- lished constitutional settlements, which holiday. posals and they have already been would in turn break the trust of their t is not the role of the political system to and more inventive than regulators with lim- The overall objective of the reports, rejected time and time again. Recent voters. adjudicate science. Politicians will nat- ited imaginations. It will seek to safeguard the one of which included a wider ‘Future elections and referendums have shown “The EU needs to reform and work urally favour the science that gives their future through the example of the past and the of Europe’ paper, were supposedly that voters are increasingly turn- for, rather than against its Member preferred outcome. In the climate change energies of the present. Conservatives should aimed at ‘reinforcing the integra- ing their backs on ever more creep- States. Setting your own foreign pol- Idebate, green progressives claim that the sky argue for policies that reduce the harms of cli- tion process’ and sees the community ing centralisation at EU level. Yet the icy is an essential part of being a sover- is falling and urge immediate drastic socie- mate change by fostering a system of legal cer- method of governance as superior response from Brussels always seems eign country and no country risk being tal change by citing the most improbable cli- tainty, property rights and modest regulation. to the intergovernmental approach to be ‘more of the same’ and all it does undermined by giving up their veto mate scenarios. Prominent progressives have It is through these institutions that society will favoured by the ECR Group. It views is show people that politicians aren’t to allow international relations to be icolas Dupont-Aignan, who the strongest voice for securing real compared global warming to an “asteroid col- create the environment most conducive to the the current opt-outs that exist for listening. directed from Brussels.” ■ leads French party Debout change and genuine reform in Europe.” liding with the earth”. creation of breakthrough N la France, and Thierry Bau- Nicolas Dupont-Aignan said: “This Similarly, some con- energy technologies, by det, who leads Dutch party Forum for is the first time that a French sovreign- servatives quote fringe enabling would-be inno- Democracy, announced their inten- tist movement brings together all the science to claim that cli- Fighting climate vators to learn through tion at a press conference in Paris euro-realist partners to Paris. We have mate change is a “hoax”. trial and error. to join the ECR Group following the never been against Europe and cooper- Where there is a widely change through In the last decade the European elections in May 2019.

Load more