EU at risk of ‘implosion’ as far-right seeks scapegoats, minister warns

The future of the EU is being jeopardised by people stirring up social tensions for short-term political gain, Spain’s environment minister has said ahead of next month’s European parliamentary elections.

Teresa Ribera, who is heading the list for the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party in June’s poll, said the European project is at risk of “an implosion”.

Ribera said that Europe, already struggling with “traditional, violent, enormously bloody and painful wars in both Ukraine and Gaza”, also faced threats from those who use energy, food, disinformation and social media manipulation as the tools of modern warfare.

She noted that three UN experts had recently warned that new laws proposed by three such regional governments – which have been criticised as attempts to “whitewash” the Franco dictatorship – could contravene international human rights standards.

The choice, she added, was between reacting as soon as possible to mitigate the effects of the emergency, reduce costs and generate opportunities, or waiting “for those dynamics themselves to hit us in the form of floods, terrible heatwaves and the collapse of our industrial infrastructure”.

She said she would do everything in her power to save the beleaguered European Green Deal, which aims to restore biodiversity, clean up the environment, and mitigate climate breakdown.