Thicker Than Water? Pragmatism Vs. Ideology in European Parliamentary Groupings

Since 1979, political competition in the European Union has taken place on two levels: national political parties compete on the domestic stage, while in the European Parliament (EP) they form transnational political groups. Research by scholars McElroy and Benoit (2010) shows that parties tend to affiliate themselves to EP groups with the ideologically closest positions. If transfers between groups do occur, it tends to be for pragmatic reasons (cf. Bressanelli, 2012; Hix & Noury, 2018). This fact strengthens the legitimacy of European democracy and alleviates concerns about the so-called democratic deficit. However, after the last elections, there has been a rather significant power shift in the EP, which has taken on a distinctly pragmatic power character. The key questions are thus to what extent ideological compatibility influences the affiliation of national parties to these groups, on what ideological basis the groups are formed, and to what extent polarisation in the EP is changing. The study will analyse the results of the 2024 EP elections to see to what extent ideological compatibility still determines the affiliation of parties to particular groups, in light of the increasing political polarisation at national but also international level. These aspects are important in view of cases such as the departure of the Hungarian Fidesz party from the European People’s Party (EPP) and its subsequent search for a new political anchorage. The findings of the research will show how significant the polarisation of parties within the different political groups in the EP is. The research will analyse unique data collected by the Electoral Calculator developed by the European University Institute in Florence (EUI). Ahead of the 2024 EP elections, the project offered a web-based application that allowed voters to find out which party was closest to them by answering 36 attitudinal questions. Party positions were coded for each EU member state by teams of local experts. This created a unique dataset of current party positions that can be used to define national party positions in a number of issues. The research builds its premises on theoretical assumptions about the ideological anchoring of parties and the impact of polarisation on political decision-making (see, e.g., Hix et al., 2007; Sartori, 2005; Whitaker & Lynch, 2014). The main contribution of the research lies in the analysis of the most recent data, which can provide a detailed description of the current shape of the European Parliament after the last elections in 2024. The study also provides a unique opportunity for comparison with previous research focusing on the area (e.g., Bressanelli, 2012; Hix & Noury, 2018; McElroy & Benoit, 2010, 2012), which will allow for the identification of the transformations that have influenced the shape and functioning of the EP in the context of the last two decades.