MEPs in search of a political family sow uncertainty in Brussels

The “o” on the sign welcome[bienvenido] of the post placed at the entrance to the European Parliament is made up of the 12 stars that make up the EU flag. Behind the table, two ushers from the European Parliament look attentively at anyone who enters with a clueless appearance: it is likely that they are one of the many rookie MEPs who will make up the new chamber starting next month. The idea is to help them resolve any doubts they may have at a time when the labyrinthine headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels is a coming and going of new and old legislators, moving boxes and, above all, first negotiations to establish alliances and secure the main positions for the new mandate.

But if some rookie legislators have doubts, there are many more that generate part of them in the rest of their future colleagues. Above all, those classified for now as the “others”, just over fifty legislators from new parties or movements who arrive in Brussels for the first time – such as Se Acabó la Fiesta, SALF, of the ultra Alvise Pérez, which has surprised by achieving three MEPs. It is not yet known which group these new MEPs will join, as negotiations are still underway. Although a good part of them will probably end up in the most peripheral parties, especially on the right, because the majority defend disruptive ideas.

In any case, they arrive a priori without sponsors, as they say in Brussels slang, that is, without any direct connection with one of the seven political families that make up the bulk of the chamber, except for those not registered, where the MEPs who fall. They do not belong to any family or have been expelled. This is what happened in the previous legislature with the 13 legislators from Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, invited in 2021 to leave the European People’s Party (EPP).

Although the so-called traditional pro-European groups – EPP, the social democrats of S&D and the liberals of Renew – add enough votes to, if they manage to reach an agreement, guarantee a comfortable majority (in the absence of consolidating the results, together they gather for now 400 of the 720 total seats) in the hemicycle, in this mandate that is now beginning the ultra forces have acquired so much weight that these balances are more precarious than ever. And there, each seat counts, if possible, more than before. The “others” generate doubts and anxieties due to their capacity to break the increasingly fragile balances now established. This group will disappear when the first session of the new European Parliament is held on July 16. By then, anyone who is not in a political family will end up as unregistered.

There are more than reasonable doubts that Renew, which has dropped from 102 seats to 79 in this legislature, will be able to maintain its position as the third force in Parliament, since the European Reformists and Conservatives (ECR) – with ultra members such as the Brothers of Italy , by Giorgia Meloni, or Vox—currently have 73 and, if they manage to get more votes from among these newly arrived forces, they could take that third place.

And there are more candidates to generate disruptions in Brussels than ever: currently, the European Parliament has classified 55 legislators as “others”; In 2019, there were only 31.

Among those who provoke the most doubts are the newcomers not only to Brussels, but to politics, such as Alvise himself, convicted of spreading hoaxes on the internet and who has openly acknowledged that he ran for office in the elections to seek immunity from prosecution in Europe. Or the youtuber who also falls in the European capital almost unintentionally, the Cypriot Fidias, who at 24 years old has a record number of followers on social networks, 2.6 million and who admits that he has no idea about European political issues.

New German left-wing populist formation

But having political experience does not always dispel doubts. Tell it to the six new MEPs who arrive from Germany for the new formation of Sahra Wagenknecht, the charismatic German politician who left the post-communist party Die Linke to found her own populist party, with which she has achieved better results in Brussels than his old training. Precisely this confrontation, however, raises doubts, since it is very difficult for Die Linke, which is active in the European family of The Left, to allow Wagenknecht’s MEPs to sit in their group. On the other side of the political spectrum, there are several “others”, such as the Romanian ultras of AUR (five MEPs) who view ECR with sympathy, but whose pro-Russian position could block their way in a family led by a Meloni who openly flirts with the EPP and that has accepted the pro-Ukraine position of the Twenty-Seven.

Because it is not enough to want to enter a political family, it also has to accept the applicant. Both parties have to communicate this in writing to Parliament before being formally registered in a given group. If they do not succeed, they may end up in the group of non-registered members, which in the previous legislature had 62 MEPs, including the three from Junts per Catalunya who have now reduced to one, Toni Comín.

Few want to end up in that undefined group, and with good reason: only if you belong to a political family can you aspire to institutional positions (such as vice-presidencies of Parliament or committees), access the distribution of files, be in decision-making meetings or even have more speaking time. And if everyone wants something – new, old, political veterans or newcomers – it is to be heard from the loudspeaker that is Europe.

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