Terrorists would vote for Europe's left-wingers, Angela Merkel's political party claims

Monika Hohlmeier accused liberals and socialists of 'basically inviting' terrorists to attack

The European Parliament (Creative Commons)

Terrorists would “gleefully” vote for Europe’s left-wing parties, a senior politician from Angela Merkel’s political party has claimed.

Monika Hohlmeier, an MEP in the German conservative CSU/CDU alliance, said parties ranging from centre-left liberals to social democrats and greens were “basically inviting terrorists” to attack Europe.

She made the claim in a statement calling for greater spying powers on European citizens in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

“It seems that for the Socialists, the Liberals, the Greens and the Communists, it is business as usual. For them there's no lesson to be drawn from the Paris attacks,” she said.

“These left-wing groups are basically inviting terrorists to use loopholes in our safety and security legislation in order to perpetrate other terror attacks.

“It is imperative that appropriate steps are taken swiftly and weaknesses in our security legislation identified. The movements of terrorists have to be monitored, their financial sources have to be drained and their encrypted communications must be accessed.

“In order to do that, it is imperative that we change legislation.”

The headline of her written statement, published on her party’s website, was “Paris attacks: terrorists would gleefully vote Left”.

She also paid tribute to the police and intelligence services and said that while privacy was important, security should take priority.

EU interior ministers will meet on Friday to discuss the bloc’s response to the murders, which the militant group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for.

Ms Hohlmeier’s CSU party sits in the European People’s Party group, the main centre-right grouping in the European Parliament.

The MEP is centre-right grouping’s spokesperson on civil liberties.

The British Conservative party left the pro-EU EPP in 2009 to form the moderately eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists group, which opposes a federal Europe.