Passau, Germany (Alliance News) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative allies lashed out at the EU on Wednesday, setting the tone for their campaign for May’s European Parliament elections.

“This urge to regulate every corner of Bavaria and Germany is suffocating the European idea,” said Horst Seehofer, the head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavaria-based associate party of Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

He was speaking at an event marking Ash Wednesday, which is often used by the country’s political leaders to engage in a war of words with opponents in front of beery crowds.

Seehofer slammed what he called EU “centralization”, adding that the system needed to become more democratic.

Amid growing euroscepticism in member states, politicians from across the political spectrum have been seeking to present themselves as reformers who will cut Brussels’ regulatory role down to size.

EU insider Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament and lead candidate of the EU Socialists, spoke in favour of the bloc, saying it had saved Europe from war and merited being “defended, preserved and improved.”

Seehofer, who is also Bavarian premier, told his audience of about 4,000 people that the EU should focus on issues that are important for the whole of Europe.

The speeches come as Europe’s political parties are gearing up for the May 25 European elections, which are expected to see a wide range of groups – including eurosceptic parties – taking seats in parliament.

This includes Alternative for Germany (AfD), a centre-right anti-euro party founded in 2013 that came close to entering the German parliament, the Bundestag, at that country’s September 22 election.

An opinion poll released Wednesday showed the party winning a 6% vote share in Germany, which would have allowed it to take seats in the Bundestag.

Last month Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled that there should be no minimum threshold for German political parties to gain seats in the European Parliament.

The decision was a controversial one considering Germany’s experience of political fragmentation in parliament in the 1920s, which paved the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler.

The CSU’s comments have been interpreted as an attempt to capitalize on voters’ frustrations with the EU ahead of Bavarian municipal elections set for this month.

Merkel had been due to make an Ash Wednesday speech of her own, but cancelled due to Ukraine-related commitments.

Copyright dpa