Europe’s grand coalition is over: It’s time for mainstream parties to break with the European People’s Party

This is the real majority now shaping the EU’s direction: not the formal coalition of EPP, S&D, Renew and Greens, but an informal rightwing majority assembled file by file, and vote by vote. It is advancing the largest regulatory rollback in EU history, be it on climate, environmental protection, digital rights or public health, in the name of competitiveness

Opinion

Unlock article and share
By Alberto Alemanno,
Paris
,

For most of the EU’s history, Christian Democrats and Socialists governed together.

When their majority disappeared in 2019, they brought in the liberals; in 2024, the Greens (informally) too.

On paper, this gave the pro-EU mainstream a comfortable majority: the European People’s Party, Socialists & Democrats, Renew Europe and Greens together hold well over 450 of 720 seats.

Yet when the new European Parliament confirmed Ursula von der Leyen for a second mandate, she received only 401 votes, largely thanks to Georgia Meloni’s rightwing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Marine Le Pen/Jordan Bardella’s hard-right Patriots for Europe and the Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s extreme-right Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN).

The vote was secret, but its meaning was not: the formal pro-European majority was already fraying, and the EPP was already discovering it could look right whenever the centre-left became inconvenient.

Even before the elections, the EPP had begun distancing itself from the European Green Deal while adopting increasingly hard-right language on migration and environmental protection.

Since then, the pattern has become unmistakable. On issue after issue - from Venezuela to the Return Regulation - the EPP has not merely flirted with the hard-right. It has normalised an alternative majority of convenience.

Whenever the numbers are tight, it turns right.

To read this story, log in or subscribe

Enjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a subscriber for as low as €1,75 per week.

Read without limits
Already a subscriber? Login
Unlock article and share

Latest from Column

The EU’s foreign policy problem isn’t institutions – it’s the quality of its leaders

Burnham’s first test: fix UK’s ‘national embarrassment’ defence to reassure Nato

Latest from EPP

France, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria: how ‘grand coalition’ centrism actually breeds extremes

Rightwing MEPs extend NGO ‘witch hunt’ by six months, prompting outcry in EU Parliament

Latest from EU Politics

At 11 percent, the EU’s gender pay gap is nothing less than economic violence against women

One bigger EU budget beats 27 national ones, Serafin tells frugal states 

Latest from S&D

The next EU budget – trying to do ‘more with less’ will be a victory for the far-right

MEPs delay vote on deportation bill to March amid return hubs dispute

Latest from Opinion

The EU poured millions into Gaza — and looks away when it’s turned to rubble

Is Berlin about to go from conservative to hard-left?

This is the real majority now shaping the EU's direction: not the formal coalition of EPP, S&D, Renew and Greens, but an informal rightwing majority assembled file by file, and vote by vote. It is advancing the largest regulatory rollback in EU history, be it on climate, environmental protection, digital rights or public health, in the name of competitiveness

Topics

• Column+ Follow topic by email
• EPP+ Follow topic by email
• EU Politics+ Follow topic by email
• S&D+ Follow topic by email

Author Bio

Alberto Alemanno is an academic, author and one of the leading voices on the democratisation of the EU. He is Democracy Fellow at Harvard University, Jean Monnet Professor at HEC Paris and founder of The Good Lobby.

+ Follow author by email