Southern liberals on edge

...The confirmation this week that three Ciudadanos MEPs, Adrián Vázquez Lázara, Eva Poptcheva, and Susana Solís, jumped ship and joined right-wing Partido Popular's EU election lists has certified the death of the liberals in Spain, favouring the right-wing. The death of Ciudadanos, currently the second biggest delegation in the European Parliament's liberal Renew Europe group, is a tragedy for the liberals' presence in Europe's south. Aside from Spain, Croatia, Malta, and Greece do not even have politically relevant factions.....

...Bardella is counting on two types of running mate for the European elections: players from civil society and outgoing MEPs. The list features the retention of 10 of the 23 outgoing MEPs—only eight of whom are actually in eligible positions, including Le Pen's close associates Philippe Olivier (11th position) and Catherine Griset (14th position)....

...2004 was the year of the EU enlargement with Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Cyprus. But in the same year, NATO also saw its biggest expansion, with Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia joining together on 29 March 2004. (Czechia, Hungary, and Poland had already joined in 1999.)

The two processes are largely related.

Without EU and NATO membership, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the three former Soviet republics, would have been taken over by puppet governments, which would have then requested reunification with Russia. < wipes tears > A "de-Nazification" would have followed, masses of populations would have been moved, essentially amounting to ethnic cleansing, and nothing could have been done to stop it....