BRUSSELS — With four years still to go until the end of their mandates in the European Parliament, Italy’s center-left MEPs are already breaking up with Brussels.

In the cafés and pizzerias of the EU quarter, they are plotting their return to “the beautiful country” — a move only exacerbated by regional elections this fall.

The left-leaning Democratic Party (PD) lawmakers’ near-total obsession with local politics is making them increasingly irrelevant in the European Parliament, where they are seen as punching below their weight. 

Despite being the biggest national group in the Socialists and Democrats caucus, the PD is frequently outmaneuvered by smaller delegations with more discipline and a better knowledge of the Brussels machine. (The situation is also not helped by two of the Italians being suspended.)

The future election of the S&D group leader — currently Spain’s Iratxe García Pérez — during the midterm reshuffle in 2027 will be a litmus test of who matters the most inside the Socialist party.

It should be a moment for the Italian left to step up, but it is an open secret in Brussels that the PD’s heavyweights are more interested in power games back home. 

Ever since its creation in 2007, the PD — currently the largest opposition party to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy — has been ridden by tribal warfare, ideological divides and personality clashes. 

This is proving a major liability in the Socialist power struggles in Brussels, where internal unity often matters more than size.

“The Germans and Spaniards are fewer, but they matter more,” said a PD lawmaker who, like others quoted in this story, was granted anonymity to breach confidences.

“Unlike the Spanish and German delegations, the PD don’t vote united. It’s not clear who they respond to,” echoed a non-Italian Socialist party insider.

Party lifers who have made a name for themselves in Italy are seen as out of touch in a city that thrives on technical expertise and behind-the-scenes schmoozing with foreign colleagues. 

“The PD have three or four microgroups within the delegation, and we notice that some have tensions with [party leader] Elly Schlein,” said a Socialist MEP from another delegation. 

Critics say that a majority of Italy’s center-left MEPs spend more time canvassing in their domestic constituencies than operating in the rarefied backrooms of Brussels’ power centers. Only a handful have a permanent flat in the EU capital, sniped another PD insider. 

“The new MEPs appear to be on loan to the European Parliament,” said David Allegranti, an Italian journalist and PD expert. “They needed a one-year placement, but they’re coming back for the regional elections this year — and potentially for the national vote in 2027,” he added. 

Such is the extent of their political machinations to return to frontline national politics that the Italian daily Il Foglio compared the PD’s Brussels squad to the Count of Monte Cristo, the Alexandre Dumas character who spent years plotting his escape (and revenge) from a prison cell on a rocky fortress island. 

But unlike Dumas’ hero, the MEPs are not seeking vengeance. They want a road back to political relevance. 

Time to go home

The first, and so far the only, PD lawmaker to have left Brussels is Matteo Ricci, who is contesting a local election on Sept. 28 and 29 in the Marche region in central Italy. 

A PD bigwig and former mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, chair of the European Parliament’s environment and food safety committee, has announced he will run for the presidency of his native Puglia region in the fall. 

If he wins the election, his party colleague Annalisa Corrado — a Schlein loyalist — is the favorite to take up his post as the head of the European Parliament’s powerful environment committee. 

Other bigwigs, such as the former mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, and the ex-governor of Emilia-Romagna, Stefano Bonaccini, are rumored to be trying to return to Rome as national MPs in the upcoming general election in 2027, according to multiple PD insiders.

It is also important to note that it is not only the Socialists who are pining for their homeland.

EU lawmaker Pasquale Tridico from the anti-establishment 5Star Movement will contest the election to lead the Calabria region in October.

“Few of them speak English and are interested in European topics,” the PD lawmaker said of his colleagues. “This reflects badly on the whole delegation.”

Despite the exodus, the PD does have some powerful and respected figures within the European Socialists, who have built a good reputation. 

Disputing the notion that the PD punches below its weight, a third Socialist MEP pointed to Italian colleague Camilla Laureti’s position as vice chair of the S&D and to Fabrizia Panzetti clinching the powerful secretary-general post. 

The chair of the PD’s delegation, Nicola Zingaretti, declined to be interviewed for this story.

Not pulling their weight

Italian politicians with big ambitions rarely dream of becoming MEPs.

What is generally seen as a second-rate job, however, became a safe haven for a handful of political has-beens who were left jobless at home — and weren’t completely in sync with PD leader Schlein’s lurch to the left.

By picking a mix of party lifers, local caciques and media celebrities, the PD emerged from the 2024 European election as the largest Socialist delegation in Parliament. But this didn’t translate into real power in Brussels.

To everyone’s surprise, Schlein refused to claim the Socialist leadership last summer even though this is generally awarded to the largest national delegation.

In exchange, she secured an informal agreement with the other delegations that the PD would lead the group in the second half of the parliamentary mandate starting in mid-2027.

However, with over a year left until the reshuffle, this promise is unlikely to materialize.

The Spanish delegation is eager to retain control of the group and is pushing to extend the mandate of incumbent García Pérez to secure stability. Meanwhile, the German delegation is also expected to vie for the position — especially if it does not secure the European Parliament presidency.

The Parliament president job is meant to go to a Socialist MEP in 2027, according to an informal agreement struck last year with the center-right European People’s Party. Yet, such an outcome would reignite calls to replace the incumbent Socialist European Council President António Costa with an EPP figure in the midterm reshuffle.  

One high-up Socialist MEP suggested that the Italians would likely give away the presidency to a Spaniard or a German in exchange for keeping the secretary-general post.

“[The PD’s group has] people that are very popular in Italy … [but they] have not managed to build beyond that [in Brussels], which limits their potential,” said a fourth Socialist MEP.