Europe’s draft gene-editing law may only survive thanks to the far right.

The new law would determine whether Europe opens the door to a new generation of gene-edited plants, an innovation boon worth trillions of euros. But after months of hours-long meetings, fraying tempers and déjà-vu debates, the small circle of officials trying to hammer out the legislation know they’ve hit a wall.

Now, inside the negotiation rooms, a taboo is starting to look like a safety valve. Two right-wing MEPs — allies of Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini — look ready to break the impasse.

“The left is blocking negotiations,” said Silvia Sardone, a rising star in Italy’s far-right Lega party. “Their demands are impossible to meet.”

Though they would never put it so bluntly, other negotiators on the New Genomic Techniques file agree with her. Week in, week out, European Commission officials, national diplomats and Parliament representatives lean over annotated printouts that, by now, feel more familiar than their own phones.

Supporters say the technology could help develop crops that cope with drought and cut chemical use. Critics fear it would strengthen big seed companies through patents and squeeze out smaller breeders.

But whenever talks resume, they fall apart immediately — not over objections from governments or the Commission, but because the Parliament’s own voices are pulling in opposite directions. 

French Socialist Christophe Clergeau, backed by Greens and the The Left, is holding the line on stronger protections for small companies, consumers and the environment. Swedish conservative Jessica Polfjärd, playing the role of the Parliament’s broker, is struggling to keep her camp together. Meanwhile, two members of the group — previously ignored — are quietly indicating they’re ready to settle.

It’s in that vacuum that a once-taboo idea has crept into the conversation:

What if the far right is now the only way to get this done?

The new arithmetic

Just a few months ago, that would have been dismissed outright. But after last week’s raucous vote in the Parliament chamber — when the center right openly teamed up with far-right groups to bulldoze a deregulation package through a booing hemicycle — it no longer sounds so outlandish.

The Commission says it cannot concede more changes. Governments say they have already gone as far as they can. The text bounces back to the table, unchanged.

“We are circling the same paragraphs every week,” said one diplomat, who like others in this story was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

That’s where two unlikely figures hover at the edge of the impasse.

One is Pietro Fiocchi, an Italian heir to a historic ammunition dynasty, a hunting evangelist who addresses “dear hunters and fishermen friends” in Facebook videos, and a man known for once appearing on a campaign poster pointing a gun.

The other is Sardone, a combative hardliner who rails against “green follies,” edible insects and electric cars. She has made headlines for social media posts warning of “Islamization,” alleging ties between far-left activists and Islamic extremists, and attacking the Romani community.

Neither is anyone’s idea of a biotech champion. But both have indicated they’re willing to accept the slimmed-down deal governments say is the only realistic option. And the pair’s readiness has changed the mood.

The threat of the far right stepping in could force Clergeau to accept a weaker compromise — a centrist move which is in vogue in the Parliament — according to a Parliament official close to the talks. This is only to avoid an even weaker, far-right-backed deal being pushed through without him, the official added.

Clergeau flatly rejected that scenario, saying the talks hadn’t reached that point and that nothing new had emerged to warrant further comment.

He previously said he is pressing for proof that new genomic techniques actually deliver benefits, not just promises on paper. The deal, he argued, must not accelerate the concentration of the seed market in the hands of a few multinational companies, at the expense of smaller breeders and farmers.

Polfjärd declined to comment for this story, pointing to the sensitivity of the ongoing talks.

Last year, MEPs overwhelmingly backed a ban on patents for gene-edited plants, in a rare show of unity from the far right to the far left. This time, a majority — including a sizeable chunk of Clergeau’s own Socialists — is expected to support whatever deal the negotiators manage to hammer out if that’s what it takes to get the regulation into law. That’s one reason EU diplomats argue Clergeau is no longer reflecting the balance inside the Parliament.

But before any of that matters, negotiators still have to break the deadlock inside the room. A fresh round of technical meetings is scheduled for Thursday and next week, before what is expected to be a decisive political-level session in early December. Few around the table believe the remaining disagreements will magically resolve themselves before then.

Which leaves one uncomfortable calculation hanging over every meeting. As another diplomat put it:

“If that’s what it takes to get the deal through, then why not?”