A far-right takeover is the biggest threat to the future of Europe, according to a POLITICO survey of EU lawmakers.
Members of the outgoing European Parliament who took part in the poll mentioned Europe’s rightward shift and the rise of populism as the biggest challenges facing the Continent.
Climate change and Russia’s war on Ukraine also ranked high, overshadowing traditional hot-button issues such as migration and the state of the economy.
But not everyone has the same fears.
While social democrat lawmakers emphasized right-wing populism, the climate crisis and social inequality in their responses, MEPs from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) were more likely to mention the war in Ukraine and the bloc’s security as their main concerns.
The war in Ukraine is notably absent in the responses of right-wing MEPs from Identity and Democracy (ID) and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
Instead, they focused on the dangers of migration and the erosion of national sovereignty, as well as the pitfalls of a rushed implementation of the Green Deal.
VDL yes, no, maybe
Ursula von der Leyen is hoping to get a second term as European Commission president, but outgoing lawmakers are lukewarm to the idea.
Around 1 in 5 of those polled said they would want von der Leyen to be confirmed for another mandate, but even her own EPP group is divided.
A small vocal minority, dominated by the ECR and the Greens but counting MEPs from across the political spectrum among its ranks, is openly opposed to von der Leyen. The anti-VDL camp comes fourth in the ranking, after the Socialists’ top candidate Nicolas Schmit.
A sizable share of respondents placed their hopes on the Spitzenkandidat process, under which the lead candidate put forward by the winning party becomes the president of the European Commission.
The system, which was first introduced in 2014, failed miserably in 2019 when Manfred Weber, the EPP’s Spitzenkandidat, was unceremoniously passed over for the Commission gig in favor of von der Leyen, a former German defense minister who hadn’t even run in the election.
But some lawmakers seem to think (or hope) it can be revived and that citizens will finally be able to have a say on the composition of the next EU executive.
Nevermind that voters themselves don’t seem to care that much about it.
Hanne Cokelaere contributed data analysis. The POLITICO newsroom conducted the MEP survey between January and April 2024. We analyzed 352 responses to the question “What’s the biggest threat to Europe?” and 344 responses to the question “Who should be the next Commission president?”
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