Brussels is questioning whether the European Union’s long-standing cordon sanitaire is beginning to crumble.
Doubts have arisen after the European People’s Party (EPP) once again offered support to right-wing groups in the European Parliament on November 19.
During a meeting of the EP’s Conference of Presidents, the EPP sided with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Patriots for Europe — two right-wing groups that include parties in Italy’s government — to block a parliamentary mission tasked with assessing the state of the rule of law and potential violations in Italy.
The decision, taken despite a prior agreement with the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and the Liberals of Renew Europe — with whom the EPP forms a centrist coalition in the EP — marks a clear break with past practice.
In recent years, this alliance had mirrored the French and German model of a cordon sanitaire against parties accused of extremism: No co-operation, no joint votes, no public alignment.
The aim was to prevent the ECR and Patriots from gaining institutional legitimacy or influence over key legislative decisions.
“The cordon sanitaire is now effectively being challenged,” said Antonios Nestoras, founder of the European think-tank the European Policy Innovation Council (EPIC).
“Unlike in Germany and France, the EPP at European level has always remained vague, never clearly ruling out voting with the radical right.
“So Wednesday’s vote was not impulsive. The EPP has always kept this option open. The digital omnibus simply provided a window of opportunity — or the perfect excuse — to switch the parliamentary majority,” Nestoras told Brussels Signal.
While S&D and Renew remain steadfast in enforcing the cordon sanitaire, the EPP’s growing readiness to vote alongside the Right is not new.
In mid-November, the EPP aligned with the ECR and the Patriots to water down corporate sustainability reporting rules.
A few months earlier, a Patriots-backed text was approved in the Economic Affairs Committee with EPP support — the first such success for a radical-right initiative this legislature.
November 19’s vote appears to confirm a pattern: The EPP oscillates in a delicate balance between a centrist majority with Socialists and Liberals and occasional co-operation with right-wing groups.
Nestoras said: “The EPP is playing a dangerous balancing game, one that, in the long run, may damage the party itself more than the radical right.
“The radical right, at the very least, has been voting consistently with what it promised its voters. By contrast, the EPP is trying to sustain two different majorities in Parliament: One with the pro-European coalition including the centre-left, and another with the radical-right,” he said.
“How long can the EPP maintain this before the contradictions become unsustainable?”
According to Carlo Fidanza, ECR group leader in the EP, co-operation between right-wing groups is set to increase, although it will not evolve into a stable alternative alliance to the centrist coalition the EPP has with Socialists and Liberals.
“Some EPP members are more pragmatic and willing to vote with the right; others, tied to the traditional alliance with Liberals and Socialists, prefer to stick to the cordon sanitaire in order to avoid alienating partners.
“For two legislatures, the ECR has sought to break this block, pragmatically fostering joint votes with the EPP and other right-leaning groups. In this legislature, the numbers now allow such co-operation, which may become more frequent, particularly on topics like green policy and migration,” Fidanza told this website.
“However, it is unlikely to develop into a stable alliance, due to national political competition and hostility from some right-wing factions towards [European Commission] President [Ursula] von der Leyen.”
What once appeared a solid cordon sanitaire is, to many, beginning to look more like a line drawn in the sand — still visible, still invoked but increasingly vulnerable to the political tides.
