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12 ANALYSIS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 AUGUST 2024 Fragmented right inside the EP MATTHEW VELLA takes a look at the formation of the European Parliament's new political blocs to see which tailwinds from the member states will be blowing through the agendas of MEPs AS the European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen for a second five-year term to lead the bloc's executive, it was clear how the 720-member chamber had been divided along various national and ideological lines. The new composition of the European Parliament has been marked by a rightward drift that has however also delivered a frag- mented far-right, marked notably by the rise of Marine Le Pen in France, Giorgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia in Italy, and the German AfD. Neither party is within the same political family in the EP which now has three separate far- right groupings. That has left the rest of the House to enforce the so-called red line separating the Europe- an consensus from the far-right: the cordon sanitaire, with the election of von der Leyen rep- resenting the first such expres- sion of this political concord, with 401 votes hailing from the centre-right, centre-left and left- wing, liberal and green groups. The changes in European par- ties' electoral fortunes in the 2024 elections now delivers new waves of influence within the blocs making up the EP, which remains dominated firstly by the centre-right European Peoples' Party (EPP) and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D). For example, the French are mainly represented within the far-right Patriots for Europe at the expense of Emanuel Macron's losses for liberals Renew; Ital- ians are leading the conservative right-wing at the ECR, but are a strong influence inside the left, chiefly the S&D but also The Left; Spanish MEPs are big within the EPP and the Socialists; Germans rule the EPP but also the Greens and have considerable presence in all socialist factions, but with the rise of the AfD, the far-right faction is also led by Germans; from the East, Polish MEPs re- tains outsize influence in the EPP and the ECR while Romanians remain well-represented in the EPP And the S&D. The leaders' blocs: EPP and S&D EPP 188 seats S&D 136 seats With different national elec- tions delivering varying fortunes for the mainstream parties that once dominated the EPP-S&D big tent parties, the 2024 elec- tions have tweaked the influence of these parties. Inside the EPP's 188 seats, Ger- man MEPs remain dominant with 31, followed by Polish prime minister (and former EU Council president) Donald Tusk's party, with 23 seats, and the Spanish Partido Popular with 22 seats. Spain retains its influence with 20 MEPs from its ruling socialist party inside the S&D's 136 MEPs; second to Italy's Democratic Par- ty with 21, while French social- ists hold their own with 13 MEPs. German MEPs, despite dismal performances in the elections, re- tain 14 members in the S&D. Interestingly, from the East it is Romanian MEPs who are found in both equal measure in the EPP (10) and S&D (11). Far-right claws: Patriots for Europe PfE 84 seats On the far-right, Hungarian and French MEPs from Fidesz and National Rally respectively, dom- inate the newly-formed Patriots for Europe, which benefiting from Marine Le Pen's triumph in the European Elections manages to establish itself as the third largest force in the EP. By surpassing the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the PfE re-brands the Identity and Democracy faction, which has been the most radical right-wing camp in Brussels with vehement opposition to the EU immigration pact and the New Green Deal and denies Giorgia Meloni of added influence in this constellation of far-right leaders. Orbán, with 10 MEPs now sev- ered irrevocably from the EPP he once belonged to, gets to keep his influence as the divisive author- itarian-leaning 'bad boy' of EU politics, especially in the context of his six-month turn to head the Council of the European Union. By outraging his European counterparts by holding talks over Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow – three days after he went to Kiev to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – Orbán seals his Patri- ots with the timbre of his pro-Rus- sian leanings. And with Marine Le Pen and other leaders such as Geert Wilders and Matteo Salvini, the PfE represents the greatest chal- lenge to the European main- stream and the leaders it dubs 'elites', such as French president Emanuel Macron. The less radical: European Conservatives and Reformists ECR 78 seats Holding sway in the smaller ECR is Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Jarosław Kaczyński's nationalist PiS (Law and Order), which might be more inclined to seek paths of agreement with the dominant EPP now that the far- right has broken up in three parts. However, Meloni declared her group had not backed von der Leyen, who insisted upon being consistent and not voting with the left, even at the risk that Brus- sels may now be less indulgent towards Italy's mammoth public debt. Meloni is seeking sway inside the Commission, pushing European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto for a top job, telling the Corriere della Sera it would be "surreal" for Italy to be 'punished' by Brussels with a non-influential executive post. The ECR, once home to British Toryism inside the EP, are largely seen as less radical than other far- right groupings, suggesting there might be more common ground on issues like Ukraine with the EPP. The ECR has also benefited from three chairmanships of the EP committees. Already before the elections, European Com- mission President Ursula von der Leyen, an EPP leader, was criti- cised for leaving open the possi- bility of working with Meloni. But it is clear that Ukraine is the demarcation setting the ECR apart from other far-right groups, with the Patriots advocating for a ceasefire and even allowing for concessions to Russia, setting them apart from the ECR. Renew, Greens and The Left Renew Europe 77 seats Greens 53 seats The Left 46 seats Renew's liberals, once the third-largest political group and often a deal-broker for the EPP in major legislative efforts, today have fallen to fifth in the Europe- an Parliament. It remains driven by Emanuel Macron's Renaissance, with 13 French MEPs, and Dutch and Belgian liberals (7 and 5 respec- tively) who have had classically an oversized influence in both the House and the group. Germany's FDP elected 8 MEPs to the group. Again German influence re- mains traditionally oversized inside the Greens, home of the original Bündnis 90/Die Grünen alliance from here the Green Par- ty takes much of its influence, now in coalition government with the socialist SDP. Green influence is squarely lo- cated within the West of the po- litical sphere, with MEPs hailing from the Netherlands (6), France Far-right leaders: the ECR is dominated by Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, while French RN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, with lead MEP Johan Bardella, has joined forces with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban in Patriots for Europe. The German AfD, failing to find a home in either group, created its own bloc