The EPP’s new policy framework targets Muslim organizations with increased intelligence scrutiny and funding cuts, framing their activity as a form of political entryism. By drawing parallels to Russian and Chinese meddling, the party aims to justify a securitized approach to civil society. This stance persists despite findings from German intelligence agencies that identify right-wing extremism as the primary threat to domestic democracy. Rights groups, including the European Network Against Racism, warn that such language legitimizes systemic exclusion and places European Muslims in a double bind where active citizenship is mischaracterized as radicalization.
EPP Hardens Stance on Asylum and Muslim Civil Society
The European People’s Party, the EU’s largest political force, has adopted resolutions calling for the systematic mapping of Islamist networks and the abolition of subsidiary protection for asylum seekers. The move signals a decisive shift toward restrictive policies, equating religious groups with foreign state-led interference in European democratic processes.
Simultaneously, the party is pushing to scrap subsidiary protection status, a safety net for individuals facing torture or indiscriminate violence who fall outside formal refugee definitions. Eurostat data shows over 155,000 people received this protection in 2024. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Magnus Brunner, speaking at the group’s Vienna assembly, praised this shift in migration policy. The EPP resolution further proposes a blanket ban on asylum claims for individuals arriving via borders considered subject to state-led "instrumentalization," a tactic Brunner described as using human beings as weapons against the bloc.
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