The European People’s Party’s powerful Polish delegation has criticized the group’s increasing alignment with the far right, spearheaded by its German leader Manfred Weber, arguing those groups are unreliable and don’t value what’s best for Europe.
“In the end, [the far-right parties] are against all [texts] where Europe seems stronger, better organized … why cooperate with them on the small details?” said Andrzej Halicki, EPP vice-president and leader of the EPP’s Polish delegation — the third-largest in the group with 23 lawmakers.
Since 2024’s June European election, the center-right EPP has joined forces with groups to its right to pass multiple measures in the European Parliament. For some EPP heavyweights, the far-right schmoozing has gone too far.
“I don’t see the sense,” said Halicki, who hails from Poland’s center-right Civic Platform party, led by Polish Prime Minister and former EPP leader Donald Tusk.
Weber and his German delegation have led a push to work with parts of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group, notably Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, to advance their legislative agenda.
The EPP also has not shied away from courting votes from the far-right Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups, defying the unspoken cordon sanitaire that previously made such maneuvers taboo.
When asked by POLITICO, Weber’s spokesperson insisted the EPP remained committed to building a stable majority with S&D and Renew. Being “pro-EU, pro-Ukraine, and pro-rule of law” were the EPP’s core principles for collaboration, the spokesperson said.
Fragmented ranks
Weber’s supporters argue the European election results gave the EPP a mandate to push through their conservative policy priorities even if that means using the far right to get them approved.
“[W]e may have to look in Parliament where we can find a majority for our line. It is about content,” said Swedish lawmaker Tomas Tobé, a close ally of Weber. “We will not abandon what we believe are the right policies.”
But the traditional alliance between the Socialists and Democrats, the liberal group Renew and The Greens with the EPP should be the “center of our Parliament” and the coalition providing “answers” to Europeans, insisted Halicki.
Halicki acknowledged the EPP and far-right groups sometimes can have “similar views.”
He insisted bills must reflect the EPP line and a wider compromise with traditional coalition partners. The EPP can’t count on the far right when it comes to important policy files, Halicki added.
The disunity in the new Parliament’s largest group is showing up in legislative work.
Last October’s budget fiasco laid bare the scale of political infighting, when lawmakers rejected a budget resolution after the EPP allied with the ECR, Patriots and ESN.
The EPP was left red-faced in the environment committee last week after some of its Dutch, Greek and Bulgarian lawmakers broke ranks and voted in favor of European Commission grants to climate NGOs — against the party line of curtailing funding, a joint endeavor with the far right.
Meanwhile, far-right groups are making hay.
“We are able to bring about a right-wing majority on certain texts, when the general interest demands it, with ECR and the EPP,” said a spokesperson for the ESN group, led by Alternative for Germany, when asked about the new dynamic.
When asked whether the Polish delegation would support a second term for Weber at the helm of the EPP at an upcoming congress in Valencia, Halicki said yes: “For the time being, I don’t see any alternative.”
Polish delegation in EPP challenges Manfred Weber-led rightward shift
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