Far-right seeks more power in EU parliament as lawmakers meet

EU leaders' fate will be in lawmakers' hands from Tuesday onwards as the European Parliament convenes for the first time since June elections, with a bolstered far right demanding more influence in the assembly.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has outraged his EU counterparts by visiting Russia and China, was due to address the parliament, but his speech was postponed — officially because of a busy voting schedule.

Tensions are high in Europe as the 720 lawmakers start their five-year term, with current European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's future on the line.

As war rages on Europe's doorstep, the bloc faces multiple challenges, including a stagnant economy and growing global uncertainty, which the leaders will have to confront head-on after their election.

MEPs will vote on Tuesday for the president of the parliament based in Strasbourg, France, with the current speaker, 45-year-old Maltese conservative Roberta Metsola, expected to win another two-and-a-half-year mandate.

But all eyes will be on Thursday's vote when lawmakers decide whether to give von der Leyen another five years as commission chief.

Since EU leaders struck a hard-fought deal on her candidacy in late June, von der Leyen has been scrambling to win over lawmakers in the main political groups.

It could be a tight race. The polyglot German won by only nine votes in 2019.

"She needs to walk a fine line to get the support of different groups in the European Parliament," said Elizabeth Kuiper, associate director of the European Policy Centre think tank.

Von der Leyen must satisfy lawmakers who do not want the European Union to swerve from its focus on cutting carbon emissions to tackle the climate crisis, while other MEPs want her to reduce the number of new environmental regulations.

Evolving situation

The far-right made significant gains in the June elections in the 27-country bloc, although the centrist legislative coalition made up of the conservative European People's Party (EPP), the Socialists, Democrats and Liberals is still the largest.

Von der Leyen's EPP is the biggest political group in the parliament, with 188 seats, and with its coalition partners, in theory, has the numbers to meet the 361-vote threshold, but several MEPs have said they will vote against her in the secret ballot.

The new parliament will also vote for 14 vice presidents, and its political makeup is more complex than ever, with two far-right groups boasting larger numbers.

The European Conservatives and Reformists, dominated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers for Italy party, already has one vice president but now wants two.

A new group known as Patriots for Europe — created by Orban and including France's National Rally — is now parliament's third-biggest faction, vying for two vice-president spots as well.

That group includes controversial figures such as Italian general Roberto Vannacci, former commander who took part in the Combined Joint Task Forces' controversial training with PKK/YPG terrorists in Northern Syria and Iraq.

The programme was aimed to equip and train PKK/YPG terrorists, despite Ankara's protests and warnings that a terrorist organisation should not be employed in fighting DAESH.

The far-right Patriots are a red line for the centrist coalition.

"We don't want these MEPs to represent the institution," said Pedro Lopez de Pablo, EPP spokesperson, adding there were talks to stop the "extreme right and the friends of Putin" from gaining prominent positions.

Patriots MEPs could also be excluded from leading parliamentary committees next week.

Patriots spokesperson Alonso de Mendoza argued that a "cordon sanitaire" employed by mainstream political parties to block the far right was "undemocratic".

Analyst Kuiper said the "situation is still evolving".

The refusal of some MEPs to cooperate with the far right and von der Leyen's fate "are closely linked as several groups have flagged their opposition to support the radical right," she told the AFP news agency.