New Delhi: The European Parliament elections that concluded last week saw a surge of far-right parties across the continent. Though counting in all the 27 countries of the European Parliament where polling was held is yet to be concluded, far-right parties in countries like Italy, France and Germany made huge inroads.
What is the European Parliament?
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union (EU) and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts European legislation, following a proposal by the European Commission. The Parliament is composed of 720 members from the 2024 elections onwards. It represents the second-largest democratic electorate in the world after India with an electorate of 969 million eligible voters in 2024.
Located in Strasbourg, France, the EP has legislative power in that the adoption of EU legislation normally requires its approval and that of the Council, in what amounts to a bicameral legislature. However, it does not formally possess the right of initiative (i.e., the right to formally initiate the legislative procedure) in the way that most National Parliaments of the member states do, as the right of initiative is a prerogative of the European Commission. Nonetheless, the Parliament and the Council each have the right to request the Commission to initiate the legislative procedure and put forward a proposal.
How are the European Parliament elections held?
The EP elections are a cornerstone of the EU’s democratic process, allowing citizens of member states to elect representatives to the EP. These elections are significant as they shape the legislative and policy direction of the EU.
The EP, originally established as the Common Assembly in 1952 under the European Coal and Steel Community, evolved into its current form with the Treaty of Rome in 1957, becoming the European Economic Community (EEC) Assembly. The first direct elections to the EP were held in 1979, marking a significant step towards enhancing democratic legitimacy within the EU framework. These elections have been held every five years since then.
The EP is composed of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), who represent the EU’s 27 member states. Seats are allocated based on a system of degressive proportionality where larger countries have more MEPs, but fewer per capita than smaller countries.
The electoral system for the EP elections is not uniform across all member states. Each country can choose its own system within certain common parameters. The primary requirement is that the system must be a form of proportional representation. This can include party list proportional representation, which is most common, single transferable vote (used in Ireland and Malta), and mixed-member proportional representation (used in Germany).
Citizens of any EU member state, who are over the age of 18, are eligible to vote in the EP elections, although some countries have different age thresholds for candidacy. EU citizens living in a member state other than their own can choose to vote in either their country of residence or their country of origin.
Candidates for the EP elections can be nominated by political parties or stand as independents. Once elected, MEPs often align with pan-European political groups rather than national parties, although they are typically members of both. The main political groups in the EP include the European People’s Party (EPP), Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Renew Europe (RE), Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA), Identity and Democracy (ID), European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL).
The election campaign for the EP is unique as it spans across different countries with varied political climates. Campaign issues often focus on both national and EU-wide concerns. Topics like economic policy, immigration, environmental policy and the future of the EU itself are central to debates.
What happened in the EP elections in 2024?
Polling for the EP elections was held from June 6 to 9. Till the time of filing this report, 12 of the 27 countries have finished counting for the total of 720 seats.
Trends available now show that though centrist parties holding ground, far right leaning parties have made major inroads. The EPP has won 186 seats, a gain of 10 seats. The EPP is a party with Christian-democratic, Liberal-conservative and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Christian-democratic parties in 1976, it has since broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives.
The EPP has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and in the European Council since 2002. It is also the largest party in the current European Commission. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola are from the EPP. Many of the founding fathers of the European Union were also from parties that later formed the EPP.
The EPP includes major centre-right parties such as the CDU/CSU of Germany, The Republicans of France, CD&V of Belgium, PNL of Romania, Fine Gael of Ireland, National Coalition Party of Finland, New Democracy of Greece, Forza Italia of Italy, the People's Party (PP) of Spain, the Civic Platform of Poland, the Social Democratic Party of Portugal and the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria.
After the EPP, the S&D, a party of centre-left orientation, has won 135 seats with a loss of four seats. The S&D was officially founded as a Socialist Group on June 29, 1953, which makes it the second oldest political group in the European Parliament after the EPP. It adopted its present-day name on June 23, 2009. The group mostly comprises social-democratic parties.
Until the 1999 European Parliament elections, it was the largest group in the Parliament, but since then it has always been the second-largest group. During the eighth EU Parliament Assembly, the S&D was the only Parliament Group with representation from all 27 EU member states.
Apart from the EPP and the S&D, the RE has won 79 seats (losing 23 seats), the ECR 73 seats (gaining four seats), the ID 58 seats (gaining nine seats), the Greens/EFA 53 seats (losing 18 seats), the Non-Inscripts, also known as NA who do not belong to any recognised European parties, 45 seats (losing 17 seats), the GUE/NGL 36 seats (losing one seat) and others 55 seats.
Here is the catch. Both the ECR and the ID parties have gained four and nine seats respectively. Both these parties have far-right nationalist parties as components. Italian Prime Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is a part of the ECR. In fact, Meloni is the current president of the ECR. The ECR is a conservative, soft Eurosceptic party with a main focus on reforming the EU based on Eurorealism, as opposed to total rejection of the EU.
Similarly, among the components of the ID is the National Rally of France. Marion Le Pen, a far-right politician, is the National Rally’s parliamentary party leader in the French National Assembly.
In Germany, too, the far right alternative for Germany or AfD party took 15.9 per cent of the votes and finished as the second-strongest party in Germany after the centre-right Christian Democrats. The AfD was earlier a part of the ECR, but was later expelled because of its extremely right-leaning position.
Italy, France and Germany are all members of the Group of Seven (G7), an organisation of the world's seven largest advanced economies, which dominate global trade and the international financial system. As of 2024, the GDP of Italy is $2,332 billion, that of Germany is $4,730 billion and that of France is $3,132 billion, according to World Bank figures.
The rise of the far-right parties in the EP elections comes in the wake of the far-right leaders winning national elections across the world last year – from New Zealand to the Netherlands to Argentina.
In November last year, Christopher Luxon was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of New Zealand. Luxon belongs to the National Party, a centre-right political party in New Zealand. The party’s political ideology is often characterised by a commitment to free-market economic principles, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms, and a focus on business-friendly policies. The National Party traditionally aligns itself with principles of economic liberalism and a market-oriented approach to governance. Luxon’s government was formed in coalition with the ACT Party, a right-wing, classical-liberal political party.
Prior to this, voters in Argentina elected far-right populist leader Javier Milei as the country’s new President. Milei is the leader of the far-right Libertarian Party. During the 2010s, Milei achieved significant notoriety and public exposure in debates developed on Argentine television programmes characterised by insults to his rivals, foul language and aggressive rhetoric when expressing and debating his ideals and beliefs. He has been described as a controversial, eccentric and ultraconservative economist. Milei is the leader of the La Libertad Avanza (Liberty Advances) coalition comprising his Libertarian Party and some other right-wing parties.
Then again in November itself, another far-right populist leader Geert Wilders was surprisingly won a majority in the national elections of the Netherlands. Wilders is the leader of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid or PVV in Dutch), a nationalist right-wing political party. Wilders is known for his anti-Islam stance. He has reportedly asked Muslims in his country to “get out” of the Netherlands and live in an Islamic country if they find the Quran more important than the law of the land and want to lead an Islamic life.
What does the rise of the far-right parties in the EP elections imply?
According to Abhinav Pandya, founder, director and CEO of the Usanas Foundation think tank, Europe, mainly Western Europe, has shifted to the right because of the problem of immigration.
"I am not at all surprised by the victories of the far right-wing parties because Europe is facing a major challenge on unaccounted immigration from Arab countries, particularly from Syria after the rise of ISIS," Pandya told ETV Bharat. “When these migrants come to Europe, they affect the social, political and cultural landscape of Europe. The problem of Islamic radicalisation and terrorism becomes very strong.”
He explained that even as the overall population in Europe was on the decline, these migrants are raising the population.
“So, these far-right parties will focus on the agenda of containing Islamic extremism,” Pandya said.
According to Robinder Sachdev, president of the New Delhi-based independent think tank ImagIndia, the overall EP election results show countries moving towards nationalist right-wing parties.
“This basically means anti-immigration,” Sachdev said. “The rising cost of living in Europe is being blamed on immigration. This means that protectionism will increase. That will affect trade and tariffs in terms of imports and exports.”
According to Pandya, the far right parties will also challenge the EU’s policies on climate change and agriculture.
“The bureaucracy in Brussels, the headquarters of the EU, is very rigid and very slow,” he said. “They are imposing certain things on European countries that these far-right nationalist parties abhor and detest.”
Sachdev, too, agreed and said that the rise of the far right parties in Europe will have an effect globally on issues like climate change. “The far-right parties are not keen on green energy,” he said.
What does the rise of the far-right parties in Europe mean for India?
According to Pandya, the rise of the right wing in Europe is in a way beneficial for India because the ruling party BJP is a right-wing conservative party.
“The BJP will have a better alliance with right-wing parties in Europe on issues like immigration from Islamic countries and extremism,” he said.
Pandya also said that the rise of the right-wing parties in Europe will come as a relief for India on issues like Kashmir and minorities.
“The European countries have always been criticising India on Kashmir and freedom and human rights indices in their reports,” he said.
However, at the same time, he said that that there will be some issues about foreign workers going from India to European countries since these countries don’t want more foreign workers coming in. Overall, however, Pandya believes that the trajectory of India-Europe relations will be stronger. According to Sachdev, from a geopolitical angle, the EU will likely take a harder stance against China which might be indirectly beneficial for India.
