European socialists have turned the page on Blairism, says Harlem Désir

With the French now the biggest delegation within the Socialist group in the European Parliament, MEP Harlem Désir thinks it is time to transform the PES into a more integrated party.

Asked what the party will look like after the elections, Désir said: "It will be a more federated party, without doubt more federalist, more social. I think the page of Blairism has been turned from the perspective of European socialism".

To bring the PES into this new era, he thinks the party needs to be transformed: "To reach the goals of our project - for example to have the party voting by a majority on the whole range of policies [...] including foreign affairs - we need to implement statutory reforms". While admitting that such a process will create tensions, he says that "those who share our point of view - on the need to move a step forward, to have a PES that becomes a truly transnational party with direct members - are now in a strong position to move things forward".

To counter the EPP, Désir says that the French socialists would propose formalising a left-wing alliance in the European Parliament together with the Greens and the Communists: "I think we need to move towards a platform of the European left. (...) We will propose coordinating between the different left-wing groups on a regular basis so that, session after session, issue by issue, directive by directive, there is a coordination. Not everybody will always agree 100% on everything but I think that there is, say, 80% of agreement and that we will have to (...) try to and coordinate our hammer blows to insert the same nail".

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