BRUSSELS — 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. 

Far right, not so far away

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.” 

Unlike in the previous term, the far right can now form a majority with other right-wing MEPs and the center-right EPP. In recent weeks, this majority established a controversial committee investigating the funding of NGOs — which Bardella described as “beneficiaries of the Green Deal” on Tuesday — and demanded the Commission scrap an anti-greenwashing law. 

In contrast, the predecessor of the Patriots, known as Identity and Democracy, had just over 70 MEPs at its peak and few other lawmakers to count on. ID mostly contributed to Green Deal lawmaking by filing copy-paste amendments — never adopted — asking the Commission to withdraw its proposals. 

Neither Bardella nor Gál gave details on what the Patriots intend to do with their leadership role. A spokesperson for the Patriots did not respond when asked if the group intends to delay the legislative process.

Last-ditch effort

There’s nothing mainstream groups can now do to strip the Patriots of their leading role on the 2040 climate target. But they can try to restrict the far right’s ability to delay the process. 

The Commission is hoping for a lightning-fast passage of the 2040 goal given that the legislation provides the foundation for the bloc’s 2035 climate plan, which is required under the Paris climate accord and is due in September. Countries want to find an agreement by the middle of that month. 

The Parliament’s input isn’t required for the 2035 plan, but to pass the 2040 law, governments and MEPs each need to finalize their positions and then strike a deal between the institutions. 

To ensure the Parliament is also ready to start interinstitutional talks in the fall, the Greens this week put forward a motion to accelerate the parliamentary process. The EPP, whose membership is divided over whether to support the Commission’s 90 percent target, was poised to reject the motion. 

But now, the Greens’ motion has emerged as the only restraint on the Patriots’ influence. 

“They can delay and delay and delay the process, and probably act to block the process to keep the 2040 target in the air for months and months and months. That’s the power of a rapporteur,” said Pascal Canfin, the environmental spokesperson for the centrist Renew Europe group. 

Under the accelerated procedure, however, the rapporteur doesn’t get to draft a report — speeding up the process and limiting the Patriots’ sway. “It means that we take back control of this file,” Canfin said. 

To make it more politically palatable for the EPP to back the fast-tracking procedure, the Greens withdrew their motion on Tuesday so that they could resubmit it alongside the Socialists and Renew, representing more of the political spectrum. 

Center-right dilemma

The Patriots, the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations and the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists are urging the EPP to join them instead. 

“There’s a clear majority to at least water down the climate law to address competitiveness and [the] cost of living crisis — if the EPP stands by its own rhetoric. It is time to stop the deindustrialization of Europe,” said Beatrice Timgren, a member of the ECR-affiliated Sweden Democrats. 

The far-right Alternative for Germany, affiliated with the Sovereignists, said it would back the Patriots if the group could change the law, not merely delay it: “Europe is shifting, and more parties are starting to realize that ideology must not come before economic survival.”

For the EPP, such offers present a dilemma. Large parts of the group are skeptical of the 90 percent target and wish to see it weakened, despite the Commission’s already having given countries more leeway to meet the target than ever before. 

But voting against the fast-tracking procedure would be seen by the centrist and left-wing groups as yet another betrayal. 

The coalition that secured von der Leyen’s reelection last year — the EPP, the Socialists and Renew — is already fragile. Last month, after the Commission briefly appeared to side with the EPP and the far right in killing an anti-greenwashing law, the other two groups threatened to withdraw their support. 

The growing distrust blew up in Monday’s debate over an ECR-led motion of no-confidence in von der Leyen. “Wasn’t it you who joined forces with the radicals to dismantle the Green Deal [and] launch a witch-hunt against environmental NGOs?” Socialist leader Iratxe García Pérez asked her EPP counterpart Manfred Weber. 

The confidence vote will be held on Thursday, while the vote to fast-track the climate goal is expected on Wednesday. The EPP was still holding talks over whether to support the motion as of Tuesday evening, and a spokesperson for the group did not respond to a request for comment.

Depending on whether the motion passes, the Patriots holding the pen on 2040 “could be very detrimental or marginal,” Canfin said. 

“It’s a moment of truth for the EPP,” he added. “Is the EPP ready to kill the 2040 target, teaming up with [the] Patriots? Or is [the] EPP ready to get committed to the 2040 target?”