(15 May 2019) The European Parliament is expected to be a different legislature after next week's election and leading Czech conservative lawmaker Jan Zahradil is hoping that voters embrace the idea of a scaled-back European Union.
Zahradil is a moderate critic of the bloc, not a firebrand like French 'Eurosceptic' Marine Le Pen, and he is campaigning for a more flexible EU.
"I'd call it a multi-speed European Union with more space for the national governments and parliaments," Zahradil told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "We want the European Union to simply do less and to do it better."
The Czech is leader of the group known as the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe, which is the third largest in the European Parliament. His group is unlikely to win the ballot in the May 23-26 elections.
But he wants to contribute to reforming the EU and attract those critical of its policies with a promise of a more pliable and downsized Europe in the future.
The majority held by the centre-right European People's Party and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament is expected to evaporate. And Zahradil is hoping that European conservatives will fill the void after decades in opposition.
Zahradil said his main objection to the EU is "a permanent effort to transfer the solving of all problems (from the national) to the European level, even though it's not effective."
Zahradil is a European Parliament member for the conservative Civic Democratic Party. He is also his group's candidate to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.
He wants to replace the current EU mantra of "one size fits all" with a looser model of European integration.
In the European Parliament elections, the conservatives are aiming for more than the 76 seats they currently have in the 751-seat EU legislature.
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