BRUSSELS — Center-right lawmaker Jörgen Warborn’s subtle handshake with center-left René Repasi on the way out of the European Parliament hemicycle on Wednesday afternoon marked a nail in the coffin of Ursula von der Leyen’s coalition.

With that handshake, the European People’s Party and the Socialists and Democrats groups’ negotiators halted talks to find a last-minute agreement on a package to slash green corporate rules for businesses.

“This is what I would interpret as the end of the negotiations,” said Repasi after his chat with Warborn.

Now the center-right EPP, home to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friederich Merz, is expected to vote the package through with the far right on Thursday — unless a last-minute deal is reached at the leaders’ level.

It marks a dramatic departure from previous norms in the European Parliament, where centrist groups refused to collaborate with the far right on major policies.

The result could roll back key policies from von der Leyen’s own Green Deal, requiring far fewer companies to monitor and report on the environmental and social damage caused by their operations.

“The EPP will vote for the amendments it proposed as the Socialists and Democrats have not shown willingness to compromise and continue stuck in the same position as a month ago when the first agreement fell through because Socialist MEPs revolted against the deal,” EPP spokesperson Pedro López de Pablo told POLITICO.

The center-right group says it has lost its appetite to find a new compromise with the centrist coalition after the first one fell through in October. Instead, the EPP will vote for their own amendments substantially slashing green reporting rules for businesses, which far-right groups are ready to support.

The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists, and far-right Patriots and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups have indicated they will back the EPP amendments, as will some right-leaning members of Renew.

The EPP proposals, if passed into law, would significantly raise the thresholds for the size of companies that would be subject to the corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence rules, with only those with 1,750 employees and revenue of €450 million a year having to comply. The Commission had proposed setting the threshold at 1,000 employees.

It would also scrap the requirements for companies to have climate change transition plans under the due diligence rules.

“We all know it can pass with the right-wing bloc,” said an EPP MEP, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “It is what it is.” However, officials pointed out the whole file could fall through if not enough far-right MEPs support the EPP’s position.

But the far-right Patriots group is already cheering.

“We have won … the EPP has no other choice but to vote for the amendments they proposed, which are actually copy-pasted from the ones the Patriots and other right-wing groups agreed last month,” said French MEP Pascale Piera, negotiator for the file on behalf of the Patriots.

The Socialists and Greens accuse the EPP of not even trying to engage in constructive talks. The EPP’s negotiator, Warborn, has refused to meet with the MEPs leading the negotiations on behalf of S&D, Renew, and Greens in the same room.

“We have proposed several options for EPP, where we move in their direction,” said Green MEP Kira Marie Peter-Hansen. “I find it outrageous that the EPP slams the door on a pro-European solution, refusing for weeks to meet with the three democratic groups, and instead go into an alliance with the extreme right.”