Identity and Democracy, or I&D for short, is the fifth largest political group in the European Parliament and is composed of far-right populist parties, such as the French Rassemblement National (National Rally), the Italian Lega (League), and the German Afd (Alternative for Germany. When the United Kingdom was still a member, For Britain, a far-right anti-Islam movement, was also affiliated with I&D. They currently hold 74 out of 705 seats.
On the occasion of Europe Day on May 9, the EU is kicking off the long-awaited and much-debated Conference on the Future of Europe. The events will give citizens a chance to become more involved in what is by many perceived as opaque and mysterious Brussels bubble politics. Current challenges and ideas for the future will be discussed in various formats, ranging from a multilingual dual platform through smaller decentralised events to large european citizens’ panels and conference plenaries.We are looking ahead at what the different party groups of the European Parliament (ultimately the EU’s most direct representation of its citizens) envision the EU’s future to look like. Every day this week, there will be a new article analysing another party group’s position and vision.
The European Parliament voted yesterday to declare the whole European Union an LGBTIQ Freedom zone. The resolution, on which 492 MEPs voted in favour, 141 voted against and 46 abstained, comes as a response to the declaration of LGBTIQ-free zones in over a hundred Polish regions, counties and municipalities and is intended to put political pressure on states with illiberal tendencies.
Last Monday marked this year’s international women’s day – a good opportunity for groups in the European Parliament to show where they stand on gender equality and women’s rights. And because we can imagine you don’t want to spend a full evening researching all the different groups, going through their Twitter accounts, reading their press releases and clicking on every link they’ve posted, we did so for you.
The long-awaited and much-debated conference on the future of Europe finally seems to be gaining some traction now that the European Parliament has signed a joint declaration by the Parliament, Commission and Council. The project was set to launch in May 2020 already but hit a brick wall due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Orbán’s ruling party, Fidesz, leaves the European People’s Party (EPP). In a letter addressed to Manfred Weber, the group’s leader, he informs him that all Fidesz MEPs resign their membership of the Christian Democrat group. The letter comes as a response to today’s meeting where the EPP decided to vote in favour of changing the rules of member party exclusion.
