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The European Parliament’s committee Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs recently passed measures to increase deportations, through a cooperation between the European People’s Party group and the nationalist groups to the right. A major victory for conservatives, and a showcase of the great things that the centre-right establishment can accomplish together with the more committed Eurosceptic forces to the right.
Typically, situations where the centre-right is dependent on the so-called “far right” results in hung parliaments, which has paralysed legislatures and government formations across Europe for decades. That this breakthrough has happened on a European level is one of the most significant milestones in the conservative reconquest of Europe in a long time. Migration is not quite the first topic that the EPP and the nationalist groups have united on, but it is perhaps the most politically and culturally sensitive policy area that we have.
That the EU has moved in a constructive direction towards decreasing illegal migration and tighter regulating movement into Europe manifests a paradox, however. Eurosceptic parties have drawn energy and voter support from pointing out the EU’s anti-democratic tendencies and particularly its enabling of mass immigration. If the EU, undeniably democratically, moves to shore up its shortcomings on migration, will it weaken the Eurosceptic narrative?
Other controversial policy areas, such as regarding the so-called Chat Control 2.0, also yielded symbolic defeats for the European Commission and the unelected bureaucrats (even if likely only temporarily). Surely this must serve to rehabilitate the European Union in the eyes of its critics on the nationalist right?
Meanwhile, the global developments towards rearmament and preparation for war has reinvigorated the EU’s mission in the eyes of many people, not just limited to die-hard Euroenthusiasts. Many parties that constitute the nationalist right in the European Parliament have strong sympathies to the cause of Ukraine, and the calls for unity in securing military aid. The decline of the partnership with the United States under Donald Trump has also brought the necessity for European self-reliance into the foreground again, according to many forces on the right. These are often the same forces that have previously expressed strong disapproval of further European integration, which they deem to be intrusive.
The idea of an EU army has moved from obscurity and absurdity on the pro-federalist fringe to becoming nearly mainstream, even if it does not take the form of an explicitly new organisation flying the EU flag. A concept for a common European defence is being normalised through discussions about coordination, joint military exercises, the strategic movement of warheads, and other multilateral commitments. It is rare to hear criticism against these developments, at least from the softer Eurosceptic parties.
On the energy front, you also have conservative successes. The European Commission has been forced to back down on several radical ambitions, such as the abolition of fossil fuel engines, and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which was a major point of contention especially in Sweden, where it was predicted to incur massive but futile renovation costs for house owners in the name of energy efficiency and climate concerns. Thousands of tiny climate-related needles from the EU, levied onto European tax payers, have been halted or scrapped thanks to the unwavering resistance from nationalists and the centre-right.
That is not to say that all is well with the European community’s supranational commitments – far from it. But the successes of the right may begin to overshadow the dread of looming federalisation, centralised EU taxes, and other top-down instruments that the Commission has planned.
As the public sentiment has grown more sympathetic to European integration on various policy areas, the appreciation for EU membership has been strengthened in various polling. To name one critical example, membership in the European Monetary Union has increased in Sweden, a country traditionally committed to retaining its fiscal independence from Brussels.
This is not to say that the right wing has been sleeping on the job either. There are plenty of Eurosceptic sentiments still being aired in national debates across Europe. But there may come a point where the Union may be perceived as net positive, with all the conservative wins as of late.