European Parliament: the Union’s most right‑leaning institution

The votes cast yesterday and today have made it clear: the European Parliament is the most right‑leaning institution in the entire European Union. It remains to be seen what voters will think at the end of the legislature; for now, thanks to the ballots cast in 2024, the new majority has consolidated, giving rise to the first right‑wing/far‑right legislature in the Union’s history.

Parliament is currently more right-leaning than the Commission, where parties from the European People’s Party and Conservatives do not formally account for half of its members; it is also more right-leaning than the Council, which has a somewhat similar (but now more sovereignist) composition to the Commission.

The two images above illustrate two votes held today, December 17 (the first on immigration and the second on deforestation), both decisively won by the center‑right/far‑right majority, which, since the start of the legislature, has been calling the shots in Parliament under the leadership of the European People’s Party. In truth, the majority that confirmed Ursula von der Leyen at the head of the Commission at the beginning of the legislature mirrored this one: the green dots ranged from the center‑right to the center‑left, the reverse of the images above. However, right from the outset the balance shifted with the so‑called “Venezuela majority,” which quickly broke the deadlock. 

All this happens, day after day, without the European People’s Party ever having to admit that it has changed partners and without the center‑left ever doing anything to push the EPP to “come clean.” In practice, this allows the center‑left to enable the existence of the alliance between the center and the right, which is dismantling, for example, the work carried out by the center‑left in the previous legislature

We will see in four years what the voters think, and whether the center‑left will still appear on the political radar.