The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has expelled Luxembourg MEP Fernand Kartheiser at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday following his much-criticised trip to Russia at the end of May.
The next scheduled meeting of the European Parliament political grouping was not due to take place until 10 June, but members gathered on Wednesday afternoon for an extraordinary session to debate Kartheiser’s future, called after he went ahead with a trip to Russia.
A majority to remove Kartheiser was never in any serious doubt, particularly after the ECR’s two parliamentary group leaders, Nicola Procaccini and Patryk Jaki, had issued statements warning the Luxembourg MEP not to travel prior to the trip and stating they would table a motion to kick him out following the visit.
After his arrival in Moscow, the ECR said that Kartheiser had “crossed a red line” with his trip to “Putin’s Russia”. Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel had also criticised the Luxembourg MEP, who won the first-ever European Parliament seat for the right-wing ADR party in last June’s elections.
The ECR co-chairs were supported primarily by members of parliament from the Baltic and Nordic countries, and in a letter obtained by the Luxemburger Wort, these delegations warned Kartheiser in writing in advance of his trip that they would exclude him if he went ahead with the visit.
The ECR group – which includes the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), the Polish PiS party and the Belgian N-VA parties – is clearly on the side of Ukraine and is calling for more support for Kyiv. The group is committed to Nato and the majority of its members are strongly critical of Russia.
Kartheiser landed in Moscow on 25 May, following an invitation by the Russian parliament, the Duma.
At a press conference held following his return to Luxembourg, Kartheiser said he had no regrets over his decision to travel, stating that he would rather “fly to Moscow than talk to the Brussels bubble” about the war in Ukraine.
“We didn’t just compliment each other. That wasn’t the goal of the trip, but to restore dialogue,” he said.
At the press conference on 30 May, Kartheiser said that if expelled from the ECR, he could imagine either joining a new parliamentary group or working as an independent MEP in the European Parliament.
Possible options for a new alliance include the right-wing extremist groups “Patriots for Europe” and “Europe of Sovereign Nations”, both of which are considered pro-Russian and resolutely anti-EU.
If Kartheiser instead decides to sit as an independent, he would be even more politically isolated and unable to benefit from the resources available to the parliamentary groups to support the work of MEPs. This would also limit his speaking time in the plenary.
(This article was originally published by Luxemburger Wort. Machine translated, with editing and adaptation by John Monaghan)