EPP Passes EU's Harshest Migration Law With 20-Plus Far-Right Alliances
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 18
EPP Passes EU's Harshest Migration Law With 20-Plus Far-Right Alliances
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 18
Summary
June's approval of the EU "return regulation" lets member states deport migrants to detention centres outside EU territory, weakening judicial oversight and marking the bloc's toughest migration law yet.
More than 20 votes since 2024 show the European People's Party increasingly relying on Giorgia Meloni's ECR, Marine Le Pen's PfE and the ESN bloc when centrists resist its terms.
One in five final votes in June depended on a far-right group, and the same alignment is now shaping rollbacks in migration, climate, corporate-accountability and AI rules under a "simplification" agenda.
Late-July deaths of at least 88 people near Ceuta accelerated the shift, with 22 governments blaming Madrid and EPP leader Manfred Weber demanding faster use of the new deportation regime.
January 2027 will test whether centrists keep enabling that strategy, when EPP-backed parliament president Roberta Metsola seeks a third term and the far-right PfE has offered support.
As the center-right allies with extremists to offshore asylum seekers, what hidden political price will Europe pay for this controversial migration law?
With the centrist firewall crumbling, will the EU's new offshore deportation hubs actually deter migration or just create untraceable legal black holes?