Acceso usuarios
Martin Steven
After the 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections, the European Conservativesand Reformists (ECR) party grouping experienced a major change in itsrepresentation and leadership, with the wholescale departure of its coreBritish Conservative MEPs as a consequence of Brexit. Not for the first time,the ECR was written off by some commentators as merely another transient‘Eurosceptic’ faction, with even its new, post-2019 party president, GeorgiaMeloni, representing the historically fascist Brothers of Italy (FdI). So whichECR featured in the 2019–2024 parliamentary session – the natural heirs ofthe mainstream British Conservatives or a ‘radical right’ group with a nowemphatically populist, nationalist tone? In this article, it is argued that theninth session saw the ECR truly establish itself as an important and coherentparliamentary group in Strasbourg and Brussels, complete with staff andresources, ostensibly acting as a strong voice for conservatism in Europe. Withlarge numbers of MEPs from Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party leading thegrouping, there was also much continuity with ECR policies that wereopposed to political ‘ever closer union’, in favour of the single market, andenthusiastic about the wider role of the United States (US) and North AtlanticTreaty Organisation (NATO) in international relations.
