The heterogeneity of the ‘far right’

This article provides a comparative analysis of the transnational parties unquestionably located to the right of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament. The article answers three questions. First, how do the stances of the European Conservatives and Reformists, Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations differ on key contemporary issues such as EU integration, the Russia–Ukraine war and the economy? Second, how might Europe’s future be impacted if one or more of these groups were to gain dominance over the others? And third, most crucially, how can—or should—the European People’s Party respond to the rise of these more radical forces? In this context, the first part of the article focuses on the ideological divergences among far-right actors in the European Parliament. The second part sets forth three distinct scenarios pertaining to potential future right-wing alliances at the EU level (including their implications for the Union’s policy trajectory) and explores the European People’s Party’s role in consistently containing far-right influence within the EU framework.