Golob joins Macron in call for European centrist alliance

Brussels – Slovenia’s new Prime Minister Robert Golob has joined a call by French President Emanuel Macron for the formation of a new European centrist alliance that would go beyond the existing Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party, Politico has reported.

The proposal was included in a letter to the co-leaders of ALDE signed by Stéphane Séjourné, the leader of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, as well as Golob and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, Politico reports citing party officials as sources.

The new alliance would provide a larger framework than ALDE and would increase Macron’s influence in European politics, according to the Brussels-based portal.

Golob’s Freedom Movement, founded just months before the general election that he won in a landslide, is not yet a member of any EU-level grouping.

It was widely believed it would join ALDE, especially since it is in the process of merging with two small parties that are ALDE members, the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) and the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB), both of which failed to make the 4% threshold to enter the Slovenian parliament.

The LMŠ has two members of the European parliament who are part of Renew, a faction in the European parliament that includes ALDE members as well as MEPs from the ranks of Macron’s party.

Politico says Macron’s alliance is ideologically close to ALDE, but Macron has avoided becoming fully part of the ALDE family, preferring to build up his own pan-European network and avoid the liberal label.

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