A lot seems to be made of the rise of the far right in the European Electi0ns. Much of it shows a lack of understanding of how the European Parliament works.
In the last EP, the ID Group, numbeded 49 MEPS out of 705, or 7% rounding up.
During that time, I know of no legislative file or issue that the ID Group put forward that got adopted. In fact, the opposite. Anything they put forward, was a matter of principle, got rejected by the overwhelming number of MEPs.
Sometimes this led to more or less indetical positions being put forward by different groups (e.g. on pesticide challenges). The ID’s challenge got rejected but the other more mainstream position got adopted.
It seemed to go so far that the best way to guarantee your amendment was not adopted was to get the ID to table it or sign on to it.
In many ways their support was the reincananation of Roger Helmer MEP. Vocal but dooming the issue to defeat.
With their rebrand to Patriots for Europe, the far right have increased their numbers to 84 out of 720, or 12% the numbers are still too small to overturn the status quo.
I spent an hour or so looking through the votes on some files I know well. Did the ID Group sway things to victory? Would their increased size make any difference? The answer in both cases is no.
Of course, if there are examples of votes where the ID’s support made all the difference, I’d like to know.
This does not mean smaller political groups can’t have an important influence. They can. When they partner with other groups, have advisers who are seen as experts and cross-Party, and operate in a bi-partisan manner, their influence goes up considerably.
The European Parliament works on winning coalitions. Your issue can only get in law or policy if it is backed by the required majority. I’d say that the EU works on this basis.
If you want to work on the basis of having your issue championed by groups or countries with no track record of success – success defined as getting the vote passed and issue adopted into law – you need to be honest to yourself that success is unlikely.
Until the cordon sanitaire ends, and there is little chance of that happening, things won’t change.
This state of play has been the same since 1994.