Von der
Leyen can’t go far with the far right
Socialists
and liberals are rebelling against the Commission president, but she has no
easy fix in working with parties further to the right.
June 26,
2025 4:00 am CET
By Max
Griera
BRUSSELS —
With the Socialists and liberals threatening to block European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen’s agenda, an obvious question looms: Can’t she
simply govern with the European Parliament’s right-wing majority?
Last week,
the centrist coalition she has been relying on to pass legislation appeared
close to breaking point due to frustration over the efforts of von der Leyen’s
center-right European People’s Party to water down the EU’s green plans.
That has set
the forces further to the right in the Parliament crowing over what they
portray as their success in bringing the EPP on board with their agenda,
enabling them to push through ideologically divisive measures on topics such
climate and migration.
“The most
natural outcome would be to have a right-wing majority” when agreeing the new
regulation on deportations, said Dutch MEP Marieke Ehlers, a leading member of
the Patriots for Europe group working on that law.
“If the EPP
were to work with the left on this file, they would end up with a proposal that
is weaker than what their own commissioner has proposed, so I don’t really see
how they would sell that to their voters,” she added.
But while
von der Leyen might find some marriages of convenience on environmental themes
and immigration with the far right, she would find it almost impossible to
build a workable legislative agenda with such fractured and disparate
right-wing parties. Some, for example, are pro-Russian, others anti-Russian.
“They find
it very hard to agree. That, in turn, means they are an unreliable partner for
the EPP as a permanent coalition,” said Richard Corbett, a former British MEP
and adviser to the European Council president.
German
sensitivities
Von der
Leyen also has particular sensitivities as a German centrist politician, highly
conscious of coming from a country shaped by its Nazi past, about coordinating
legislation with extremist nationalist parties. If she were to rely on the
right, she would often find herself allying with politicians who are
pro-Kremlin, anti-Ukraine, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion and Euroskeptic — all
anathema to her essential beliefs.
While there
is probably more room to cooperate with the European Conservatives and
Reformists, dominated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, it would be far
harder to see von der Leyen making regular common cause with the Patriots,
whose big names include Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and France’s Marine Le Pen. And
any frequent coordination with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in
the Europe of Sovereign Nations grouping would prove especially tricky —
although the EPP has already flirted with that option.
Working with
the far right is specially delicate for von der Leyen, with German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz battling the AfD back in Berlin. Of the German Christian
Democrat trio dominating Brussels, only Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP, has
relied on far-right votes in the Parliament.
“Weber is
the only one. So von der Leyen is careful, Merz is very careful for national
reasons, and Weber, he’s the only one that really doesn’t have any shame of
cooperating with the far right,” said Sophia Russack, a researcher at the
Centre for European Policy Studies.
Von der
Leyen “clearly does not like to cater to the far right, she has demonstrated
that in her first term. The majority that she built most of her legislation on
was the center left and right, the centrist majority,” she added.
Wreckers not
builders
While the
EPP can rely on a Parliamentary majority of various hues of right-wingers to
help shoot down files they don’t like — such as parts of the Green Deal — the
symbiosis will be far more difficult when it comes to assembling more complex
legislation like the budget.
An example
of the perils of flirting with the far right came with the 2025 EU budget
guidelines. The EPP had initially coordinated with its regular allies the
Socialists, liberals and Greens, but then shifted to working with the far right
including the AfD to introduce harder language on border barriers and detention
centers.
After the
EPP lurched right, the Socialists, liberals and Greens decided to vote against
the text as a whole, alongside the Patriots, who despite their success in
getting the migration amendments passed regarded the resolution itself as
“unacceptable.”
As Rasmus
Andresen, an MEP from the Greens, put it at the time: “If you like relying on
the far right, then maybe you will get an amendment passed, but you will not
get the budget passed.”
Even on
green policy — where the right-wing bloc broadly agrees some trimming is needed
— the far right’s demand that laws be scrapped in their entirety would be too
much for the EPP. Accepting it would risk internal fractures, given that some
of its members support a strong Green Deal.
Relying on a
right-wing majority would also raise eyebrows among some of the EPP’s own
heavyweights, such as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who is locked in a
bitter political feud with his country’s nationalist conservative opposition,
the Law and Justice party. The Poles have already called out EPP leader Weber’s
rapprochement with hard-right forces in the past.
At the same
time, the EPP’s Hungarian party Tisza is leading the opposition to Orbán.
The
Socialists, still the second-largest overall grouping in the Parliament, are
being clear that an understanding was struck among the centrists on the
Commission’s program, and that von der Leyen will need to stick to it.
“There is a
cooperation between different forces that has supported a Commission with a
program. I want to remind you, President von der Leyen made a speech promising
certain things, and this speech was the result of many negotiations and
meetings with the president of the Socialist group,” Laura Ballarín, a
Socialist MEP and former chief of staff of the Socialist group, told POLITICO.
“If these
promises are not kept, we can obviously reevaluate our role.”
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