After a year marked by infighting and power plays, growing tensions among the EU’s governing coalition and the Huawei corruption scandal hitting the Parliament’s reputation, lawmakers are heading back from a long holiday to start their second year of political work.
But let’s be honest: Out of 720 members of the European Parliament, only a handful actually shape the agenda — those holding high office in political groups, leading the negotiation of bills or stirring the pot behind closed doors.
From big-name power brokers to rising stars and emerging power duos, here are the lawmakers to watch, along with key political fights ahead.
Political operators
René Repasi
The Socialists’ unofficial No. 2
S&D, GERMANY
The German-Hungarian EU law professor has emerged as a leading voice within the Socialists and Democrats group after taking over the helm of the German Social Democratic delegation in 2024. Backed by a growing circle of supporters, Repasi is already being floated as a potential successor to incumbent chair Iratxe García Pérez ahead of the midterm reshuffle in 2027 — despite scholarly rhetoric that can rub colleagues and opponents the wrong way. As tensions continue to escalate between García Pérez and Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People’s Party, Repasi could prove a valuable back channel to the German conservatives, with whom his party governs Germany.
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Andrzej Halicki
Tusk’s man
EPP, POLAND
As the only EPP heavyweight to have publicly challenged party chair Manfred Weber’s strategy of aligning with far-right groups to advance the party’s agenda, Halicki offers a counterweight to Weber’s strong grip in the EU’s biggest political family. He serves as Donald Tusk’s right hand in Brussels, leading the Polish EPP delegation and working to align the EPP’s positions with Poland’s fragile coalition government after right-wing populist Karol Nawrocki won the presidential election there earlier this year. But with Tusk’s flagship judicial reforms — crucial to reversing democratic backsliding under the previous Law and Justice government — now seemingly headed for a stalemate due to Nawrocki’s expected veto, Halicki will need to convince his colleagues to turn a blind eye to the disbursement of billions in EU funds despite the stalled reforms — funds the Commission has unfrozen pending the promise of a rule-of-law overhaul.
Jeroen Lenaers
The charming whip
EPP, THE NETHERLANDS
Don’t let his winning smile or playful Dutch humor fool you, the small-town Limburg native is one of the most powerful lawmakers in the center-right group. As chief whip, he’s tasked with keeping track of how all EPP lawmakers vote in plenary and enforcing sanctions to ensure a coherent group line. As one of Manfred Weber’s deputies, Lenaers sometimes stands in for him at the powerful Conference of Presidents — where the European Parliament’s leaders take the most important decisions and shape the agenda — and he can be seen sharing a laugh with other political group leaders in the Parliament’s hallways. As the EPP continues to stretch to the right side of the Hemicycle, making its moderate sections increasingly uneasy, Lenaers will face an uphill battle to keep the family together.
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Kinga Gál
The far-right enforcer
PATRIOTS, HUNGARY
Kinga Gál, Viktor Orbán’s executor in Brussels, is the real engine behind the Patriots’ day-to-day in the Parliament. While Jordan Bardella enjoys the spotlight and prestige of the Patriots for Europe group presidency, he’s largely focused on French politics. It’s Gál, the first vice president, who takes a seat at the Conference of Presidents, acting as effective captain of the Parliament’s third-largest political group. After a year in the chamber, the Patriots have demonstrated their ability to shape the agenda by teaming up with the EPP on select occasions. However, when it came to actual policymaking, they stumbled. The lead negotiator on the 2040 climate target, hailing from the Patriots, made headlines by proposing to scrap the bill altogether — which the EPP did not support. The Patriots missed an opportunity to strike a compromise with the right-wing bloc and yield real influence. If they want to evolve from disrupters to shapers, it will be up to Gál to push those limits.
Nicola Procaccini
The equilibrist
ECR, ITALY
This co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, a broad umbrella encompassing right-wing to far-right parties, delivered one of the most striking moments during the debate around the no-confidence vote for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Procaccini launched a sharp critique against his own colleagues from Poland and Romania for spearheading the charge against the Commission, exposing deep divisions within the conservative group. He is navigating a delicate balance as he seeks to present the ECR as a reliable and constructive force to the right of the EPP; while keeping all the group factions happy — including the Poles, who threatened to defect to the Patriots following the 2024 EU election.
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Players in the shadows
Sophie Wilmès
The democracy watchdog on the back burner
RENEW, BELGIUM
After the last European election, there was a growing push among Renew members for this former Belgian prime minister to take the liberal group presidency. Instead, she opted for the high-profile yet largely symbolic role of Parliament vice president. But is she truly staying on the sidelines, or quietly positioning herself to claim a leadership position in the 2027 midterm shuffle? Wilmès also chairs the working group on fundamental rights and rule of law under the Parliament’s civil liberties committee. That group’s work, from investigative reports and fact-finding missions to hearings with top officials, helps shape the Parliament’s stance on rule-of-law violations across member countries. That situates Wilmès as a key figure of the EU’s framework for democratic oversight.
Fernand Kartheiser
The spy
NONATTACHED, LUXEMBOURG
Parliament has staunchly held a cross-party determination to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine and break all formal contact with the Kremlin. But as the war stretches into its fourth year, this former Luxembourg diplomat-turned-spy-turned-MEP is sowing discord from within. Kartheiser, who admitted he worked as a double agent for the Soviets and Western intelligence services in the 1980s after Luxembourgish press broke the story more than a decade ago, was kicked out of the ECR following his visit to Moscow in May. He continues to try and organize regular video calls from within the Parliament with Kremlin offificials to reestablish diplomatic ties.
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Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle
The emerging anti-corruption voice
RENEW, THE NETHERLANDS
It’s the first term for the Liberal Dutch-Spanish lawmaker, but she has already found her place as an emerging voice against corruption in the EU. She is the lead negotiator for the Parliament on the anti-corruption bill, currently being negotiated with EU countries, meant to harmonize definitions and sanctions around corruption crime. Although the last round of talks failed when some EU governments considered parts of the bill to interfere with national judicial prerogatives, negotiations will continue in fall.
Brando Benifei
The US House whisperer
S&D, ITALY
Amid Donald Trump’s second term as United States president featuring a decidedly more hostile relationship with the European Union, Brando Benifei emerged as a leading figure of the Parliament’s efforts to build diplomatic back channels with the U.S. House of Representatives and the Republican Party. As the chair of the U.S. delegation, he regularly travels to Washington to maintain discreet channels with U.S. lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans. This has earned him a reputation as a well-connected and smart asset for transatlantic relations.
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Alexandra Geese
The geek
GREENS, GERMANY
As a member of both the industry and internal market committees, Geese has emerged as a key voice shaping Europe’s tech future. A lead negotiator for Parliament on the landmark online content moderation rule book, she also helped author a report on the EU’s technological sovereignty. Geese was one of the original architects behind the “EuroStack” initiative, an ambitious industrial policy project aimed at making Europe digitally self-reliant. She is also one of the key negotiators of the ongoing transparency directive, a bill aimed at harmonizing non-EU lobbying transparency requirements across the bloc.
Dirk Gotink
The NGOs’ nightmare
EPP, THE NETHERLANDS
Gotink will lead the work for a new body to scrutinize nongovernmental organizations alongside other right-wing MEPs from the ECR and the Patriots group, who are also eager to unleash a firestorm upon environmental, climate and migration groups. The lanky Dutch lawmaker, formerly EPP chief Manfred Weber’s spokesperson, is holding sharp daggers, ready to gut the NGOs’ accounts. This will be used as political ammunition, in part to draw the attention of voters back home to his dying party the New Social Contract ahead of the Dutch national election. The right wing of the Hemicycle teamed up in June to establish a special working group within the budgetary control committee that will assess the Commission’s contracts with NGOs after a group of lawmakers claimed the EU executive paid groups to lobby the Parliament on its behalf — a claim POLITICO has fact-checked.
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Dynamic duos
Siegfried Mureșan and Carla Tavares
Money bosses
EPP, ROMANIA AND S&D, PORTUGAL
Mureșan and Tavares have been entrusted with one of the Parliament’s most fundamental responsibilities: deciding how the EU spends its money. As co-leads in negotiations for the EU’s next seven-year budget starting in 2028, they must guide political groups toward a unified position on how to allocate — and fill — a €1.8 trillion budget proposed by the Commission in mid-July. Once the Parliament’s position is agreed, a process that starts this fall, they will then have to defend it in tough negotiations with EU governments in order to secure a final deal.
Malik Azmani and Marieke Ehlers
The Dutch deportation electioneers
RENEW, THE NETHERLANDS AND PATRIOTS, THE NETHERLANDS
Both lawmakers have something to prove during negotiations of the controversial deportations bill, especially ahead of the Dutch general election slated for the end of October. The new bill, known as the “returns directive” in EU lingo, aims to boost deportation of undocumented migrants across the bloc, a demand of the right wing following its wins in the 2024 EU election. For Azmani, who leads negotiations on this proposal, it’s a chance to show voters back home that his party — Mark Rutte’s poll-battered liberal VVD — means tough business when it comes to migration (in an attempt to snatch voters from the popular far-right PVV party). For Ehlers, a first-time and ambitious PVV lawmaker who leads the negotiations on behalf of the Patriots group, the deportations bill is a chance to show how the far right can exert its influence in Parliament by bringing the liberals and center right on board with topics they can find common ground on, such as migration. Game’s on.
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Sven Simon and Daniel Freund
The ethics sweethearts
EPP, GERMANY AND GREENS, GERMANY
On the surface, Simon and Freund seem to hate each other — but deep down, their constant fight in the Constitutional Affairs Committee has turned into a strange kind of affection. They lead opposing factions over how to handle transparency and scrutiny rules aimed at preventing corruption and undue influence among MEPs. Freund spent the last term pushing for creation of an EU ethics body that would set common standards across institutions and be vested with advising institutions in cases of misconduct. Simon opposes such a body, arguing that European parliamentarians should set their own ethical standards. Although Freund succeeded in securing the body’s creation during the previous term, Simon has now ensured its demise, thanks to backing from right-wing and far-right groups, which gained enough seats in the 2024 EU election to form a majority. Simon — now chair of the Constitutional Affairs Committee — is instead working on a review of the Parliament’s internal rules. That could include a revamp of the committee that deals with MEP misconduct.
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