Europe’s Largest Political Group Weighs Punishment for MEP Over Far-Right Event

The European Parliament’s largest political group is considering disciplinary action against one of its own lawmakers after he appeared at an event promoting closer cooperation between mainstream conservatives and Europe’s nationalist right.

Officials from European People's Party are weighing possible sanctions against Slovenian MEP Branko Grims following his participation in a conference that included representatives from several right-wing and far-right parliamentary factions.

According to officials familiar with internal discussions, EPP leader Manfred Weber has asked the group’s leadership to prepare options for disciplinary measures. Those could reportedly range from limiting Grims’ speaking privileges in parliamentary sessions to removing him from the political group entirely.

No final decision has yet been made, with the next leadership meeting expected in mid-June. But the dispute has already exposed deeper tensions inside Europe’s center-right over how far cooperation with nationalist parties should go — especially on migration policy, where ideological lines inside the Parliament have become increasingly blurred.

Grims attended a conference last week titled “Towards a Right-Wing Majority in the European Parliament,” where participants discussed stronger coordination between conservative, nationalist and sovereignist political forces. The event included lawmakers from the hard-right Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups, as well as members of the conservative European Conservatives and Reformists alliance.

The appearance directly clashes with the EPP’s official position of maintaining distance from parties classified as extremist or far-right. Weber has repeatedly defended the so-called “cordon sanitaire,” an informal political firewall designed to prevent institutional cooperation with radical nationalist groups inside the Parliament.

Publicly, the EPP continues to present itself as a pro-European center-right force willing to work mainly with traditional allies such as the Socialists & Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe bloc. Behind the scenes, however, migration votes have increasingly complicated that narrative.

On several migration-related files, lawmakers from the EPP have voted alongside right-wing and nationalist parties, creating alternative majorities capable of bypassing left-leaning groups. Critics say that while no formal alliance exists, practical cooperation is already taking shape issue by issue — particularly on border control and deportation policy.

Grims openly embraced that argument in comments defending his participation at the conference. He rejected what he described as “politics of exclusion” and argued that conservative and nationalist lawmakers already cooperate naturally when defending what he called shared civilizational values.

He also criticized the use of the term “far right” to describe nationalist parties in the European Parliament, calling the label offensive and misleading.

The Slovenian lawmaker specifically pointed to recent migration legislation as evidence that closer cooperation is both possible and necessary. He referenced support for the controversial EU “return regulation,” a proposal aimed at accelerating deportations of rejected asylum seekers and expanding migrant return mechanisms across member states.

That legislation already generated controversy earlier this year after reports emerged of informal coordination between EPP lawmakers and far-right parties during committee negotiations. The issue proved especially sensitive in Germany, where the conservative CDU/CSU — the EPP’s largest national member party — has worked aggressively to avoid any appearance of collaboration with Alternative for Germany, commonly known as AfD.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz previously warned that Weber carried responsibility for preventing closer ties between the EPP and extremist forces. The debate reflects a broader shift happening across European politics, where migration has become one of the main areas pulling mainstream conservatives closer to positions traditionally associated with nationalist parties. As voter pressure intensifies in several EU countries, many center-right politicians have adopted tougher rhetoric on border security, asylum rules and deportations.

That overlap has created an uncomfortable balancing act for parties like the EPP: publicly distancing themselves from the far right while frequently relying on similar political messaging to compete electorally.

Parliament officials privately acknowledge that formal coordination is often unnecessary because voting patterns already align naturally on migration files. Or, as one observer described it, Europe’s conservatives and nationalists increasingly cooperate without wanting to admit they are cooperating — a bit like colleagues insisting they are “just networking” while clearly building a political group project together.

For Weber and the EPP leadership, the Grims controversy now risks becoming more than a disciplinary issue. It highlights a strategic dilemma facing much of Europe’s mainstream center-right: how to maintain distance from the far right while simultaneously moving closer to its policies on some of the continent’s most politically explosive issues.