How the European Parliament helps normalize the far right

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the right-wing bloc led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, managed to secure high-profile positions on more than a dozen committees in the European Parliament following this year's EU elections.

Of the parliament's 20 committees and four subcommittees, the ECR grouping has been allocated 13 positions, including three chair positions and 10 vice chair positions.

Seven of these positions, on committees that cover key issues like foreign affairs, security, environment and public health, have been given to members of Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party — up from one in the last parliamentary term. Carlo Fidanza of the Brothers of Italy told DW that his party was "proud" of this growth.

Reacting to the news on July 23, Nicola Procaccini, co-chair of the ECR group and also a Brothers of Italy lawmaker, welcomed the growing role of his bloc in EU parliamentary affairs.

"Despite the Left's attempt to boycott us in all committees, the positive outcome of today's votes shows that the majority has shifted and that the Conservatives can be decisive in this next five-year legislature," he said in a statement.

Rise of ECR will 'threaten liberal democratic values' 

But some observers are worried that having ECR representatives in such powerful committee leadership positions could not only influence the parliamentary agenda, but also lead to a normalization of the far right within the European Parliament and progressively undermine democratic values.

"The normalization of the radical right as demonstrated by ECR's course & the lack of cordon sanitaire toward it by mainstream political groups threaten liberal democratic values," Zsuzsanna Vegh, a program officer at the German Marshall Fund, a US public policy think tank, said on X. By cordon sanitaire, she was referring to the firewall strategy employed by mainstream political parties to block the far right from power by refusing cooperation.

"This trend, if continues, could challenge the achievements of European integration," she added.

Not all parties in the ECR are considered far-right, but the dominance of the Brothers of Italy has some lawmakers and political analysts concerned. Julien Hoez, editor of a politics newsletter and EU affairs consultant, said the ECR is split between those who are just "euroskeptic right wingers [and] those who are more toxic far-right actors." Their growing prominence in the EU, particularly of the Brothers of Italy members, "could have a negative effect on women's rights, press freedoms and the competent management of migration issues," he added.

"They could try and push policy that blocks asylum-seekers and foreign workers from entering Europe," said Hoez.

Vegh pointed out that committee chairs and vice chairs play an important role in planning and executing the legislative work of the European Parliament. They not only ensure discussion on various bills, but set the agenda, manage meetings and oversee who handles key dossiers on specific bills.

"These are important positions when it comes to having an impact on legislative work,'' she told DW. "Normalization [of the far right] brings about better chances for representatives of such parties to influence European legislation in a direction that is in line with their ideological and programmatic preferences."

How far-right is the Brothers of Italy?

After the EU elections in June, which saw the far right increase its influence in the new European Parliament, centrist groups joined forces to block far-right lawmakers from obtaining committee leadership positions.

These far-right blocs include Patriots for Europe, parliament's third-largest group with France's National Rally and Hungary's Fidesz, and the Europe of Sovereign Nations group, which counts the far-right Alternative for Germany among its members.

The number of seats a political group gets in a committee is proportional to the given group's weight in the parliament. The political group decides internally which of its lawmakers will sit in which committee and proposes respective names, but the chair and the vice chairs are elected by committee members.

Although committee members managed to enforce the cordon sanitaire against the Patriots for Europe and the Europe of Sovereign Nations, it didn't follow suit with the ECR and the Brothers of Italy. Fidanza pointed out that this was because his party isn't far-right, and blamed the label on left-wing political parties.

"It's the usual narrative of the left,'' he said, noting that there were now two political groups further to the right than ECR. "Nobody in Europe with a minimum of good sense can consider our party as 'far-right.' The good result in terms of positions in the parliament confirms this.''

Despite moderation, Meloni still seen as problematic

Both Meloni and Marine Le Pen, of France's National Rally, have moderated their parties' most extreme policies in recent years in an attempt to increase their acceptability among voters. But, said analyst Hoez, "neither is particularly far from the other, and a lot of the 'moderating' and detoxification is down to communication strategies.

"Meloni is ever so slightly closer to the center than Le Pen, so you could argue she has moderated more, but they also both represent the far right," he added.

"Brothers of Italy today falls in the populist radical right category based on its ideology and thanks to a process of moderation conducted by Giorgia Meloni," said Vegh of the German Marshall Fund. "The initial roots of the party, however, connected it to the extreme right neo-fascist movement."

The Brothers of Italy has its origins in the Italian Social Movement, or MSI, founded by officials loyal to fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Meloni was a member of the youth branches of MSI and its successor party, the National Alliance, and founded Brothers of Italy in 2012.

Since becoming Italy's prime minister in 2022, Meloni has tamped down her euroskepticism and sided with Ukraine over Russia, a shift that has been favorably noticed by EU leaders. In 2018, before coming to power, she hailed President Vladimir Putin's reelection victory as the will of the Russian people, but lately she has been seen as a loud critic of his invasion of Ukraine.

Meloni's opposition to Putin has brought her in line with the EU's critical defense policies. But she is still seen as problematic when it comes to European values and frameworks to guard them, such as media freedom. 

In its latest rule of law report, the European Commission reprimanded Meloni's government for eroding media freedom in Italy since she took office. Journalists at Rai, Italy's public broadcaster, went on strike in May accusing the government of stifling free speech.

The EU called on Meloni's government to take "into account European standards on the protection of journalists" and ensure "that rules or mechanisms are in place to provide funding for public service media," guaranteeing its independence.

Far right taking aim at EU's green policies

Katarina Barley, a leading politician with the center-left Socialists & Democrats, said in early July that the Patriots "must be isolated in the European Parliament" and prevented from "sabotaging constructive politics" in Europe. That view was shared by Terry Reintke, co-president of the Greens/EFA group, who told German media that the far right could destroy her group's "green" policies.

"This adventurous right-wing extremist movement must not be given committee chairs because its only goal is to block Europe, polarize societies, abolish the Green Deal, democracy, the rule of law and freedom of the press," she said.

But the Green Deal is also expected to be among the priorities for the ECR and of Brothers of Italy over the next five years.

"We want to renegotiate the most important acts of the Green Deal, starting with the ban of traditional fuel and diesel engines by 2035," said Fidanza. Since the second vice chair of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety is Pietro Fiocchi, a fellow Brothers of Italy lawmaker, the group can be expected to try to dilute the EU's recent environmental legislation. 

A recent report by the German Marshall Fund said that while the ideological reflexes of non-far-right political groups will persist in EU politics, "a creeping process of normalizing parts of the far right is underway."

Edited by: Kate Hairsine, Martin Kuebler