According to POLITICO’s data, the EPP voted with ECR and against S&D in about 6 percent of final plenary votes — the same as last term.
What has changed, however, is that the EPP and ECR won more of those votes than before. The small number of votes this term so far means future votes could reverse their winning streak. Still, the shift reflects the stronger presence of conservative and right-wing parties in the Hemicycle after last year’s election, which opened the door for the EPP to win votes with right-wing support.
Many of the plenary votes that saw the EPP and ECR stick together against the Socialists involved nonbinding texts such as resolutions on human rights violations. However, the groups also banded together on a few votes that did change legislation, including a bill to water down the protection of wolves.
The EPP “strive[s] to find a consensus in the center” and the “vast majority of votes are won” there, said Dutch Member of the European Parliament Jeroen Lenaers, chief whip for the EPP group.
But, Lenaers added, “We’re not going to change our own positions based on who might or might not vote in favor of them.”
Socialist MEPs, however, insist a more fundamental shift has happened within the EPP.