The EU: Nationalist-populist groups will ultimately have three seats in the European Parliament

Saturday, Jul 13, 2024

Denik Referendum

New populist groups emerge in European Parliament; AfD leads ESN bloc opposing EU integration.

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[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

Four national populist groups will not form official groups in the new European Parliament, though one new group, Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN), will be established around Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD). The Czech SPD is joining this ESN group with AfD to oppose EU policies like the Green Deal and migration, advocating for a return of power to national states. Previously, nationalist right-wing representation was split between the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID), which has transformed into the Citizens for Europe (PfE). The ESN group will be highly conservative and include parties like AfD, SPD, Polish Law and Justice’s rivals, Bulgarian Obnova, French Renew, Slovak Post-Kkotleba Republic, Lithuanian People’s Union and Justice, and Hungarian Our Nation. This new right-wing bloc, along with the ECR and PfE, will hold a significant number of mandates (182 in total), but still less than one-third of the 705 seats. Despite their presence, both the ANO-led and SPD-led right-wing groups face limited chances to influence legislation because they remain outside the main governing coalitions. A small group of pro-Russian left-wing parties will remain unattached as they failed to meet the minimum requirements for an official group.

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