STRASBOURG — German lawmaker Lukas Sieper is joining the European Parliament’s liberal Renew Europe group, he told POLITICO.
Since being elected to the Parliament in 2024, Sieper has not been attached to a political group.
“If you look at the different groups of the European Parliament, Renew is the most pragmatic,” Sieper said, adding that the variety of views among the liberals — from left-wing green factions to right-wing neoliberal ones — is what had attracted him to Renew.
“Joining a group that is not, at least from the outset, seen as one-on-one representing a certain political ideology is the best thing for us … we have always the potential to vote against group lines due to our pragmatic approach,” he said.
The move still needs to be approved by Sieper’s Party of Progress — a German party with around 1,000 members and no presence in the German parliament — on March 22 and then ratified by Renew Europe’s lawmakers. The Party of Progress describes itself as not having a specific ideology but instead voting on a case-by-case basis after consulting with voters.
Another MEP, Italy’s Elisabetta Gualmini, is also on the move and is leaving the Socialists and Democrats group, three Parliament officials told POLITICO. All were granted anonymity to speak freely. Two of the officials said she might join Renew Europe.
The moves kick off a year of internal horse-trading through January 2027, when the Parliament’s top jobs come up for renewal and political groups scramble to poach members and shore up their influence.
“Groups are reaching out to every single MEP that could flip; the MEP shopping is all over the place,” said a Greens parliamentary assistant who said they know of lawmakers who have been contacted to shift groups. The assistant was granted anonymity to speak freely.
Renew is currently the fifth-largest group in the Parliament and is looking to leapfrog the European Conservatives and Reformists group, which is fourth. With the addition of Sieper, Renew is three seats away from this objective (or two, if Gualmini ultimately joins).
Tough being unattached
Sieper joined the Parliament after the 2024 EU election after securing 0.6 percent of votes cast (Germany does not have a minimum threshold that must be reached in order to be elected as an MEP).
He remained in the non-attached faction — comprising all MEPs without political group affiliation — as he had promised during his campaign, but the party leadership has since changed course to try to gain influence in the Parliament.
“During the last one-and-a-half years we achieved everything a non-attached [MEP] can,” Sieper said, noting that unaffiliated lawmakers have less access to speaking time, legislative files and decision-making.
“I could keep on doing it like this, I could go on until the end and live a happy life, but I would leave [unused] a lot of political potential for my voters and the people that I represent.”
He said Renew has offered him a seat on a working group on the future of the Parliament, which is tasked with drafting reform proposals, a move he said aligns with his mission to overhaul democracy and strengthen citizen participation.
The German lawmaker complained that the system in the Parliament “is built to circumvent” MEPs who are non-attached, which he said is “deeply undemocratic and also unconstitutional.”
German MEP joins liberal group, kicking off a year of EU Parliament horse-trading
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