The growing strength of the far-right groups in the European Parliament is a pressing issue for the politics of the European Union and the subsequent regions which are heavily relied on the EU. The strength will be reflected through policy changes in the question of European solidarity, European federalism and the policies for the migrants, especially for the non-Europeans. The far-rights are called as Identity and Democracy Party. However, in Europe, the tradition of the socialist democratic party and the conservative parties of liberal modern thinking coming to power in the field of long-running politics is under challenge. In just two weeks, a surprising incident happened in Italy and Sweden. After Sweden, the victory of the conservative right-wing camp in Italy paved the way for the rise of hardliners. This also happened in the European Parliament and a surge in the number of members from the right wing is visible. The number is increasing in a steady manner. The crisis of the corona epidemic in the past year and the worrisome state of the economy and inflation everywhere due to the recent Ukraine war have served as a factor in the far-right’s victory. It remains to be seen how far-reaching its impact will be.
705 members of the expanded European Union’s 27 Member States form the European Parliament. Direct universal suffrage has been used since 1979 to elect MEPs for a five-year term. However, all the legislations are discussed here. It has the authority to approve or reject laws and to change them (but not in all cases). In order to become a law, an EU Council vote is also required. The Parliament cannot reject a law that deals with EU budgets; it can only offer advice in this case. Besides, it oversees the budgets and institutions of the EU. The EU Commission must have its head authorized by Parliament, and during Question Time, the Commission must respond to written or spoken inquiries. Out of the 705 members, 65 are from ID. However, the Identity and Democracy Party (ID) is an alliance of nationalist, right-wing populist and Eurosceptic European political parties founded in 2014. This contains far-right parties from EU countries.
– Syed Raiyan Amir is a Research Associate at the KRF Center for Bangladesh and Global Affairs (CBGA). Previously, he served as a Research Assistant at United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and International Republican Institute (IRI).
