The far right’s climate power grab – The Patriots for Europe, a new far-right force in Brussels, has won the right to lead the European Parliament’s 2040 climate target discussions

>For years, the extreme right was content pooh-poohing the European Union’s climate efforts from the back benches. No longer.

>On Tuesday, the far-right Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament seized control of talks over the bloc’s next emissions-cutting milestone, a surprise move that shocked centrist MEPs.

>The Patriots — the political home of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, Matteo Salvini’s League and other far-right forces — have called on the EU to “abandon” the European Green Deal, the legislative framework guiding the continent toward climate neutrality by 2050.

>Now they will be in charge of drafting the Parliament’s position on the EU’s 2040 interim climate target — and defending that stance in upcoming negotiations with EU capitals. They will also control the Parliament’s timeline, prompting concerns of deliberate delays as the group explicitly stated its resistance to the law.

>The Patriots are “resolutely opposed” to the Commission’s recent proposal to cut EU greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 percent by 2040, the group’s chairman, Jordan Bardella, told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.

>“Therefore, we indicated our readiness to work on this report, and we would like to assert our vision,” he said in response to a question from POLITICO. “We are not in favor of declining growth levels. We’re not in favor of abandoning our industrial base and leaving them in the lurch. We are absolutely aware of the very negative and damaging effect of the left and the ecologists, and we want to counter this.”

>The Patriots’ assertive stance marks a significant shift from the Parliament’s previous term, when far-right MEPs largely restricted themselves to jeering from the sidelines and filing futile amendments to EU climate laws. The group’s ideological allies cheered the news as an unprecedented opportunity to constrain the bloc’s green ambitions.

>The reversal comes at a delicate time for Europe’s green agenda, which has faced intense pushback not only from the far right but also from the center-right European People’s Party, the political family of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

>The Patriots’ move has backed conservatives into a corner. The EPP has been reluctant to endorse the 2040 target, and was prepared to reject a motion initiated by the Greens to fast-track parliamentary talks on the goal.

>Now, however, that motion represents the best shot centrist forces have to curb the far right’s influence.

>That’s leaving the EPP with a fateful choice: Either throw its weight behind a fast-tracked target alongside the Greens, Socialists and Democrats, and other centrists — or side with the far right and risk dealing a death blow to von der Leyen’s fragile majority.

>The Patriots’ maneuver displays their growing influence in Brussels.
On Tuesday morning, the Parliament’s political groups met to decide who would name the lead MEP, or rapporteur, for the 2040 climate target. That lawmaker gets to draft the Parliament’s stance — although other lawmakers can amend it — and to defend this position in talks with EU governments, as well as to decide on the timeline of discussions.

>These leadership roles are handed out through auctions, with each group given points based on their size that they can spend throughout the term. The Patriots simply outbid the other groups.

>Centrist and left-leaning MEPs were aghast. The Patriots, they feared, would use this position to delay and sabotage the 2040 target. But they also blamed the EPP — which holds the most points — for failing to outbid the far right.

>“They really messed up,” said Lena Schilling, who leads the 2040 target negotiations for the Greens. “There was a bidding process among the coordinators, and the EPP had the chance to go higher than the Patriots did.”

>Peter Liese, the EPP’s environmental spokesperson who took part in Tuesday’s meeting, rejected the allegation, saying that other groups had stayed in the bidding process longer than him and could therefore have outbid the Patriots.

>Yet the Patriots were only able to bid competitively because the Parliament’s political balance has shifted sharply to the right after last year’s election. The group, founded last year, is the assembly’s third-largest faction, with 85 MEPs, and puts opposition to the Green Deal at the center of its political platform.

>On Tuesday, the Patriots’ leadership celebrated the group’s first anniversary while griping about the EU’s climate ambitions.

>“It was exactly one year ago, exactly this day, that patriot forces from across the continent joined to form the Patriots for Europe group and became the third-largest group,” said Vice Chair Kinga Gál, speaking alongside Bardella.

>“This was,” she added, “a clear refusal [of] the Commission’s disastrous policies in the previous term, including the failed migration pact [and] the harmful policies of the Green Deal.”