EVERY EU Political Grouping Explained: What Do They Stand For - TLDR News

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MEPs and their national parties organise themselves into larger political groupings in the European Parliament that share their ideological beliefs. In this video, we outline the requirements for groupings to become official within the EU, and what each of the current seven stand for.
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[@ThatBasedGuy]

"Hello, we are Renew Eur-" "-Ah yes our dear liberals, take your seats" *visible anger*

[@TheAmericanPrometheus]

If they're not liberals, what label do they prefer instead?

[@rogink]

I'm obviously missing something. Why don't they want to call themselves Liberals any more?

[@truedarklander]

@@rogink because Liberal is a dirty word lmao

[@_o..o_1871]

@@rogink Renew Europe is centrist. Illiberals tend to use “liberal” as a derogatory term. So I guess this is why RE doesn’t want to be labeled as such. “Centrism” is more pacifist, unionist. Let’s say that it is a safe label. Lol

[@_o..o_1871]

@@TheAmericanPrometheus They are liberals.

[@terkkraft8057]

He did it again 😂 In every video mentioning the German Social Democrats (SPD) he, with confidence, calls them S-D-P.

[@jake3736]

At this point it has to be intentional

[@berlindude75]

Or maybe he is dyslexic.

[@sergeysmirnov1062]

@@berlindude75 That would have to be an interesting kind of dyslexia that basically only shows itself in the name of one German party, at least in regards to flipping letters or the like, the SPD -> SDP switch is, from what I can tell, the only real mistake he constantly makes. Much moer likely, given they are social democrats, he presumes the name stands for *S*ocial *D*emocractic *P*arty (also, just for the record for those not knowing, it's *S*ocialdemocratic *P*arty (of) Germany (*D*eutschland))

[@FareSkwareGamesFSG]

@@sergeysmirnov1062 I heard him mix it up a couple times with FDP, and honestly it's kind of annoying. It's not like he's having to pronounce Eichhörnchen or something, it's just three letters that he speaks in English.

[@CodyMapping]

@@Just_another_Euro_dude they are called SPD because Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany)

[@andresvanrompaey8277]

The green faction also includes the European Free Alliance, a grouping of regionalist parties.

[@ignatzmeyer1978]

@Mike signs Such as the SNP in Scotland (was a member before Brexit) or the ERC (Kathalonian Seperatists). Basically sub-national centre-left parties which run on an autonomy or even seperatism program.

[@yodef6828]

I'm Spanish and I was surprised to see Esquerra Republicana (A hardcore socialist independentist Catalonian party) in the list of greens

[@eduardpuiggarcia6584]

@@yodef6828 not really hardcore

[@derorje2035]

4:51 That is the second video in the span of a couple weeks in which you name the SPD wrongly. Please, you even have the right symbol, you only have to double-check the script.

[@jokuvaan5175]

Yea. SDP is the Finnish social democratic party

[@michaelgreen1515]

TDLR you are doing this too frequently and with numbers two!!!

[@derorje2035]

@@michaelgreen1515 sorry, I don't get it. Should it be a joke?

[@michaelgreen1515]

@@derorje2035 I am both being serious because it is happening far too often even pictures now; enough to discredit them as a reliable news source. However I was also using satire to make my point!

[@horsebadorties4054]

@@michaelgreen1515 "TDLR"

[@NineWorldsFromDrew]

Seems like you missed out on explaining the EFA component of the Greens-EFA group. That EFA parties are more regionalist than green, in ideological terms, makes the entire grouping very distinct, but also helped what started as a small overlap between greens and regionalists in the EU to become a much bigger overlap, through working together in the European Parliament, it could be said.

[@petarkos1716]

EFA should have it's own group. Altough, they doesn't have enough seats right now to create it.

[@ALEXIUSTHEGENERAL]

*nationalista

[@cmecoo3109]

@@petarkos1716 4/9 member MEPs the EFA has don't even sit with the EFA in the parliament

[@NineWorldsFromDrew]

@@petarkos1716 Well yes, that was the whole reason that (most) regionalist parties formed an alliance with the greens in the EP. I just thought TLDR would have taken a few moments to explain that.

[@kubabuks26]

Yeah, it was a huge narrative hole for me too

[@Mr1Apokalypse]

Germany sends out by far the most members to the EP (96 vs for example 6 from Luxembourg) so it is no surprise that in almost every group the German Parties are among the biggest.

[@genthyseni4025]

Because Germany is largest EU country.

[@Luqum]

@@genthyseni4025 by population

[@genthyseni4025]

@@Luqum Yea

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

And population is what determines the amount of seats. But smaller countries get more seats than they would get by population and big countries get less.

[@bloodwargaming3662]

But , is the European peoples party really anti socially Liberal? I mean it's cdu in their and it isn't even considered conservative fully ,it's moderately conservative at best .

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

Then there’s a mass of people considered to be in the “Apolitical Coalition”, standing for nothing.

[@JaegerDreadful]

The anarchist grouping. In goverment, to take it down.

[@ipadair7345]

@@JaegerDreadful I mean the anarchist grouping makes sense, as they're doing a goverment takeover peacefully instead of attacking police cars.

[@ShaDoW-uc7bn]

Ah, Napoleon. The famous TommyKay Clips commenter.

[@joaoduarteazevedo2818]

@@ipadair7345 The same with the Monarchist Party here in Portugal running for the parliament and the presidency (xD)

[@ludvigholst4767]

@@joaoduarteazevedo2818 There are monarchists in Portugal with some sort of influence in politics?

[@Gallalad1]

I'd love to see a piece on the Non-Inscrits in the European Parliament and get a taste of who're they're like.

[@thergonomic]

That being thirty-seven people in question, with Fidesz taking twelve of those and M5S taking eight.

[@Gallalad1]

@@thergonomic Hi Eddie. Still, I'd like to hear about them. I'd like to see if there's any weird and/or whacky characters.

[@lenno15697]

Half are niche weirdos like Die Partei (a satire party), the other half are parties too extreme for even the ID or the Left group (we're talking actual neo-nazi's and marxist-leninists).

[@peterfireflylund]

@@Gallalad1 yes, they are generally weird.

[@NAYRUthunder99]

- Normie: before running for elections, let alone getting into a government, you should agree on a clear political idea. - M5S: are you sure about that?

[@isaks7042]

The long term goal for Volt Europa is to make their own official Parliament Group with the same name. But for that they need 25 MEPs from 7 countries.

[@hanst.6915]

Volt Europa stays very strong by the coming elections for the European Parliament in 2024. I think we need a more federative united Europa for solving problems with climate and peace. ⚓🌉🇪🇺🌉🙏

[@BlazeLycan]

@@hanst.6915 It would never work. The EU could never become a US-style country due to the stark differences between each nation. Heck, it barely works in The UK and that only consists of 4 nations. There is too differing much history, differences in national politics, cultural customs and way of life, and so much more. These nations aren't just states of mostly anglo-saxons like in The US, and they're not shaped by republican(not the US party, I am talking about republicanism) values like freedom of speech, gun ownership, and the like. Besides, a federative Europe would anyways not have much to say over climate. The continent as a whole doesn't contribute much to it compared to just The US or especially China on their own. It's also questionable what more regarding peace it would do compared to what it does now. Such a super state would also be so much further removed from the people, and as a nation state is responsible for its nation, a suprastate would arguably be dangerous for any semblance of EU "nationality" as whole national populations would realize just how starkly different they are from a different nation, example being Sweden and Poland.

[@eruno_]

Lithuanian Farmers & Greens party which sits in EU Green grouping is very conservative unlike other green parties worldwide which is interesting observation.

[@herculeskoutalidis1369]

So there is at least one green party that makes some sense.

[@criminals]

Yeh our Farmers and greens is BASED

[@pyroman2918]

Similar to that, the Czech Pirate party stands out, because it supports nuclear power, unlike most green parties. Which is far more reasonable if you care about climate change IMO.

[@eruno_]

@@herculeskoutalidis1369 I don't see how homophobia "makes sense" to you

[@herculeskoutalidis1369]

@@eruno_ how are they homophobic?

[@calvin3798]

We need a group to represent the likes of Count Binface

[@newstartyt3700]

Non-Inscrits

[@schmid1.079]

Well, there is "Die Partei". A german party that is well known for their satire that got 2 seats in the 2019 election. Look up "The Nico Semsrott Show" or some of Martin Sonneborn's speeches (mostly german though). And yes, they are still in the parliament, though Semsrott changed to the greens.

[@julianshepherd2038]

Boris is fool enough

[@bleddynwolf8463]

the absurdists for Europe

[@neodym5809]

@@schmid1.079 Well, their election promise was to shoot the top 100 german by wealth if they get elected, which is tempting.

[@glif1360]

So we have: Communists Social democrates Centre-green Liberals Liberal conservatives Hardcore conservatives Right-wing populists

[@iamseamonkey6688]

i feel like every democracy should have exactly this grouping

[@AB-zl4nh]

No, we have.... We have... Left Nationalist Centre-Left Socialist Centre Liberals Centre-Right Conservatives Right Nationalists

[@iCrapBubbles]

@@iamseamonkey6688 It should. Not only is everyone represented, but it's important that we're able to tackle issues from all sides, and have politicians that can keep extreme ideas in check. Or even smaller parties adivising the ruling party on certain things, like the greens are doing in Scotland at the moment. Of course, this has massive downsides, like the possibility of nobody agreeing on anything and therefore issues never get resolved. However, in my opinion, it's important that everyone can have a say, including right/left extremists. Then again, a lot of my views on politics are across the board, I agree with a lot of policies on both sides of the spectrum.

[@explodethebomb]

@@AB-zl4nh You missed 1 (I'm guessing Greens based on your descriptions)

[@phillbt]

if we gonna call the first one communists we should then call the last one fascists

[@RipCityBassWorks]

This honestly sounds way better than the US system. If only we had hundreds of parties and 7 general groupings instead of just two corporate parties.

[@bomschhofmann1644]

I think it's funny how everyone associates his own party with a grouping, just to find out that there are parties with somewhat different policy's in those groupings, making it extremely hard to tell where exactly a grouping stands

[@alessandrofranzoni5960]

In fact the Italian political party Lega (that's part of ID group) is actually less right wing in the Italian political spectrum. Instead Fratelli d'italia in Italy is the farthest right (somewhat credible) political party. Both of them are populist in the same way.

[@hurri7720]

It's extremely hard to tell where a person or a party stands too.

[@henrikwagner6762]

Yeah, for me it is quite intresting. Because I am a member of the German the Left (which advocaats Democratic Socialism) and hence a member of the European Left which is a part of the Left in EU parliment. And even in the EL there are memberpartys which have such different political positions then the one of my party or my own.

[@XMysticHerox]

Different nations have different overton windows so parties even if they fill similar roles in their nation can vary quite a bit.

[@rossswann3346]

Video explaining all the northern Ireland parties please. No one seems to cover this. Only UK wide parties.

[@studiohoudoe424]

This would be better suited for their UK channel. This is their European Union channel.

[@rossswann3346]

@@JohnDoe-ch4ko pretty mutch, but I mean more of there major policies.

[@choonbox]

@@JohnDoe-ch4ko Are the Irish parties in a minority?

[@benfarmer-webb1016]

@@rossswann3346 the unionists are right wing to centre right and nationalists a centre left to left wing

[@SirBlade666]

@@JohnDoe-ch4ko A party more extreme then the DUP? How is that possible? Do they want to commit a genocide against the Catholic population? Have the UK army conquer the ROI?

[@elpred0]

Any european citizien needs to watch this. Thank you.

[@justinbrockhaus4389]

As an American, I think everybody from my country should watch this too

[@JJMcCullough]

Are there any literal communist MEPs? I know France used to have a strong communist party…

[@the8thgemmer467]

My country Cyprus has 2, from the main opposition party (AKEL), which is the only major party in Europe that is communist. One of them is a Turkish Cypriot (the only Turkish Cypriot MEP) and I’m not quite sure if he’s a member of the party, as it allows nonmembers to appear on its lists. The other, however is a former MP and I’m 100% sure he’s a member if the party. The party supports that, post-reunification, Cyprus must gradually establish socialism through collectivisation and/or nationalisation of property, and that this can only be achieved if there is a global revolution. In practice the party, when participating in government, is the labour-lobby and supports general left-wing policies. It governed Cyprus from 2008-2013 but because 3 recessions occurred it was unable to enact much and, as governments during recessions tend to become, the government became deeply unpopular.

[@jacobwalker9950]

If i remember correctly there's one belgian, one french, two cypriot, two spanish, one czech, two portugese in total. Not certain i got them all, but I think thats all of them from overtly communist parties Also love your vids J.J, even though you are right wing in your own belief.

[@Duck-wc9de]

there are! some Portugue MEP's are from the 3 main national comunist parties. (and 2 of them are hard comunists- marxist-leninists that want coletivisation, nationalization of all companies, workers rulling, etc... extremes in 8:20 you can see the "left block" (the little red man) and th PCP (portuguese comunist party). these parties are in decline because they relly on the voting base that they created during the 25 of April. And those people are dying because it was 40 years ago. nobody is actually comunist, they just vote on those parties because they were the oposite of salazar and because they have done so for the last 46 years. but they are oposition parties and they make the strongest oposition, they organize protests and run the culture wars, but for the last 8 years they were in government with PS, and that made them extremely weak because now they couldn't criticize the government. because of that people that use to vote comunist, now are voting for PS (socialists) and diferent parties. that's why they are starting to decline

[@eruno_]

Yes there are communists in EU parliament. One is is from Belgian Workers' Party, One is from Czech Communist Party and two from Portuguese Communist Party.

[@whydocountriesexist3414]

The Greek communists sends 2 who sit in the NI group

[@leonhunte2036]

I love TL;DR but please put a little more attention to party abbreviations - on more than one occasion you have said SDP instead of SPD, you called the Swedish Social Democrats SDP instead of S, etc.. It's not a big deal, just take a moment to check these small details.

[@pascalnitsche8746]

Hint: it’s SPD not SDP (the acronym means „Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland“ or in English „Social Democratic Party of Germany“) It’s one of the oldest German parties - having been around since the German Empire in the 1800s.

[@alexanderzippel8809]

Its the oldest, still existing party

[@arjanvaneersel]

The problem is that these groups aren't real European political parties, but simply consortia of national parties. And that causes some very nasty controversies and hypocrisy. For example: Renew Europe often points fingers at Viktor Orban for corruption and lack of press freedom, they even strongly encouraged the EPP to expel Fidesz a while back. But at the same time they have the Bulgarian MRF as a member, which is the party of oligarchs like Ahmed Dogan and Delyan Peevski who are associated with structural corruption and repressing media freedom (according to reporters without borders), thus doing the same as what they accuse Orban of. And it's because of the presence of the MRF that with EU elections I would never vote for any member party of Renew Europe, even though I might have done so during national elections.

[@DGAMINGDE]

1:06 "For example the are a bunch of different green parties across the continent. In the EU parliament they joined forces." Volt, the Pirate Parties and the Danish Socialists: Don't mind us lol

[@truedarklander]

Danish People's Socialist Party* *who are an Eco-Socialist party

[@acediadekay3793]

@@truedarklander Danish People's Socialist Party (SF) have a complex history and is not the same as The Social Democratic Party in Denmark (A). SF used to be a Communist party (Communist Party of Denmark), then they revamped them self as a party for school teachers and child care workers (gained a large youth following do to this). Members of SF split off and created The Alternative in 2013 (a full on green party, SF only became a full member of the green party in 2014), however this new party have had some trouble lately, so it makes a lot of sense for SF to align them self even more with the popular green party ideas. So yep they belong there.

[@simplypodly]

@@acediadekay3793 a lot of european communist parties reinvented themselves either in the late 1950s or after the soviet unions collapse, usually those that reinvented and seperated themselves earlier performed better in elections

[@ganapatikamesh]

Thank you for explaining this! I had a vague idea about what the groupings might be, but I wasn’t actually sure how and why they were created. I have occasionally come across these names in some news articles about the EU, but I wasn’t sure how that related to the news story the article was discussing. Next time I come across these names, now I’ll have a better understanding. I’ll also be aware of the one group’s name change. I appreciate videos like these that just simply explain things that I think sometimes the major mainstream news sources forget that not everyone reading their articles, listening to their podcasts, or watching their videos is knowledgeable of. That’s one of the reasons I like TLDR News is because you take the time to break the relevant and important information down and put it into context so that even a casual reader/listener/watcher of news, current events, etc can understand the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the story. So thank you for videos like these (which I love get referenced back to when necessary, as was done within this video regarding two videos on parties) and for your other videos! You’re doing a great job at helping inform the world!

[@lsavtrr]

Just a small note: the greek party “syriza” is pronounced as- SIRR-EE-ZA :)

[@pajarothebird9842]

Why didn't you talk about the regionalists parties in the Greens-European Free Alliance? Like the Catalan ERC (big force in the region), formally the SNP, and the Corsician party. I think there's an interesting discussion about the connection between regionalist nation-building politics and environmentalism. Love your content!!!

[@Lleruelu]

That connection is called "green washing": Are you a nationalist? Avoid being related with uncool things as etno-supremacy or bigotry by embracing progressive ideologies such as environmentalism or feminism. Tell your people that the only way to achieve those awesome goals is by means of independence, and distract your critics from the fact that your ultimate goal is to put a new border between 2 peoples. An example: Until recently, Catalan separatist politicians talked a lot about how the lazy Spaniards were leeching out the richness of the hard-working Catalan taxpayers. Now they speak about how they pursue a self-sufficient, eco friendly, feminist Republic of Catalonia that it's impossible to build within Spain. That's some good political marketing!

[@pajarothebird9842]

@@Lleruelu Bruh… i'm not from Spain. My comment literally just says that this video is missing part of the Greens-European Free Alliance by not mentioning regionalist parties. On the topic of bigotry, frankly, I used to live in Spain and I know people who remember when their ethnic names were made legal after the dictatorship. It's strange to me that Spain still hasn't bothered to set up access to EU institutions in Catalan, as they promised to do in 2006. On one token, Spain gives a lot of power to autonomous communities to promote regional cultures throughout the country, but on the other hand, I think there is still work to be done if Spaniards really want to have a multilingual, multicultural country.

[@Lleruelu]

@@pajarothebird9842 my sarcasm wasn't directed against you, I apologise if it felt that way. I was mocking nationalism, not your comment. Sorry man! Regarding Spain, I can tell you, I come from one of those "oppressed" minority cultures, maybe even 2 depending how you count (Galician and Asturian, each with each own language and culture), and it is true that Spain has A LOT of room for improvement. However, to be completely fair, Spain is way more advanced in the matters of protection of minority cultures/languages that most of the countries I have worked in, including France, the UK and even Canada (which overprotects French while basically disregards native languages). Catalonia demands concessions that it wouldn't get in any other country, but I won't lose my time discussing about those whiners. At this point, I'm so fed up with their egotistical deliria that I'm pro-Catalan-independence myself... The way I see it, speaking Galician or Asturian shouldn't give me special rights, I don't see why that should be the case for Catalans, but it's just my opinion

[@pajarothebird9842]

@@Lleruelu No worries. Galicia and Asturias are beautiful areas, I have visited them both. Best wishes :)

[@esleynopemos3470]

I'm sure it makes sense in context, but the idea of a euro-skeptic coalition just seems hilariously ironic to me. "We don't want closer coordination and cooperation between our countries, so we'll form a multi-national grouping to cooperate and coordinate our efforts to stop that."

[@rogink]

You missed out the quotes in "closer coordination and cooperation". And the word 'voluntary'.

[@_o..o_1871]

I am the opposite of eurosceptism, but I mean this makes perfect sense and it’s an obvious move. You should unite in order to get rid of an established forced, no?

[@rogink]

@@_o..o_1871 Afghanistan perfect example. In the 80s its many regional tribes united to defeat the Red Army. When the Russians left the tribes went back to fighting each other.

[@zombieguyproducion]

How do you achieve a scaled down EU without working together towards that goal?

[@prkp7248]

I don't know why you excluded "Free Alliance" in description of Green & Free Alliance, as it is important part of this grouping and parties that are part of this side of this grouping can be different than greens - some of them can be eurosceptic as they are separatist. Some EFA parties like Latvian Russian Union are conservative. It is important to point out that members of european party called "European Free Alliance" are not allways part of "Green & Free Alliance" group in European Parlament. Out of 10 MEP that are members of EFA 5 MEP are part of green & free alliance, 3 are part of ECR, 1 is member of European Left, and 1 is NI. Also your description is really to broadly (too broadly), and sounds like it is made out from green liberal perspective.

[@diegoyuiop]

Yeah, also the Catalans Independintist and other autonomist/separatists movements

[@nikitaplotnikov931]

Loved the vid. Boosting the engagement. Please do more like this!

[@maxhatterschannel5140]

I was just looking this up yesterday 🤣 Thats some A-Class Timing

[@codymurphy3493]

Well I just learned that there’s still a Musollini in Italian politics. Huh

[@michaljanota6576]

Czech Pirate party wanted to be in Renew but since ANO 2011 went there first and they could obviously not be in the same party as their main competitor on local scene they settled with greens.

[@RobinKoenig1917]

You forgot to mention that the Greens European free alliance is a coalition between the Green parties (as you mentioned) and parties representing national minorities, regionalist parties and independence movements. For example, the Republican Left of Catalonia is in this grouping. And prior to Brexir, so were the SNP. This is where the "European Free Alliance part of this name comes from.

[@SuperMegaBomba]

Hey, TLDR you make a mistake in 7:21 where above the czech flag is logo of Pirate Party Germany not Czech republic, We in Czechia have the logo without the orange circle :)

Logo with orange circle is the German Pirate Party, the Czech one is the one without the circle (black and white).

[@tasosltss1988]

Thank you guys for this video!! I really wanted an overview of the EU parliament :)

[@Paranoid_Found]

Green-EFA also includes regionalist and separatist parties, such as Belgium’s NVA (which is right wing) and until Brexit, the SNP.

[@seanpatrick1243]

Great explanation! Cheers!

[@onctaaf]

I would love to have more time to see what parties are in the groups. that’s only like 5 frames on screen now before you skip on to the biggest 3. Very annoying to have to pause the video at that exact moment every time.

[@orkanner2183]

i know polling show the EPP's lead is significally smaller now and the S&D is closer than ever (politico shows only a 10 seat difference)

[@DaDunge]

Who cares, they're both cut from the same cloth. Tell me when ALDE or the Greens are ready to overtake them. At least they have ideas more interesting than lower/raise the taxes.

[@leiftorbjorn5621]

Tell me a functional difference between the EPP and the S&D. There is nothing 20 years from now, that would be in any way different if come next election cycle, any of these parties took a majority.

[@Agate717]

@@leiftorbjorn5621 there is a small difference but it's subsumed by the fact that the European parliament is a perpetual grand coalition of the EPP, ALDE and SD so all the policies are mild and centrist

[@leiftorbjorn5621]

@@Agate717 yup. Not that any of this matters anyways. The actual role leftist/rightist ideology plays in super national EU politics is quite minor anyways.

[@_o..o_1871]

@@Agate717 RE**

[@zedero8]

Supranational Union* not “organization”. The EU is an integrated politico-economic Union (basically a confederation if you like). I feel like the wrongly used word of “organization” does the EU no good.

[@h.inusitatus]

Calling it a confederation would do it even less good, since it would implicate a more solidified structure and give the notion of less sovereignty for its member states. Sort of like how some people are a couple but they feel uncomfortable saying that and say they're friends instead.

[@2hotflavored666]

The EU is nowhere near close to being a confederation, the EU is just not integrated enough to be considered a confederation.

[@zedero8]

@Sean Hogan that’s why I said confederation and not federation.

[@martijnb5887]

It would also be nice to highlight the difference between European Parties and Parliament factions. For the larger groups they overlap, but not for the smaller. Faction formation is more pragmatic and happens after elections. A clear example is the Dutch ChristianUnion, whose is member of the European Christion Political Movement. But as this group is too small to meet the requirements for a faction, the CU MEP, are now part of the EVP faction, despite being more Eurocritical. Until the ECR became too populist they were ECR member, and before the ECR existed they were part of the ad-hoc and eurosceptical Europe of Nations group.

[@herculeskoutalidis1369]

Close your borders to the south. Make children.

[@stevejohnson3357]

Minimum numbers are a necessity but they can be a huge barrier for less well established groups.

[@DaDunge]

Why place the greens left of S&D? They're more progressive but they're economically much closer to the centre.

[@explodethebomb]

That's interesting. The Green Party of my country (NZ) is further left than the main centre-left party (Labour), and I know the US Green Party is much further left than the Democratic Party, so I assumed it would also be the case for Europe

[@Daydreamer941]

@@explodethebomb same here in the Netherlands the greens are a little more left than the labour party

[@bomschhofmann1644]

@@explodethebomb interesting, in Germany here it appears as the greens are pulling back on social justice and focusing just on a fair and climate friendly market so that they have better chances to get a coalition with the more center right parties Greens across Europe are apparently very different

[@lenno15697]

They are about the same as S&D economically. Got to remember there are also a lot more left-leaning green parties (like the Portuguese Ecologist Party) than the German Greens.

[@hesseldekraai]

@@Daydreamer941 I am alsp Dutch but I personally disagree. The PvdA and the GreenLeft barely have any differences aside from the GL having green policies slightly higher while PvdA has progressive policies slightly higher. There is a good reason why they might merge

[@jorenbosmans8065]

Small tip on pronouncing Guy Verhofstad's name: it is pronounced as Gee (the butter thingy, if someone with knowledge of Dutch names disagrees feel free to correct me). Great short video again

[@robinstevenson6690]

There should be another video explaining the balance of power in the european parliament, which is the most interesting part. What good is it to tell us what the party groupings are if you don't tell viewers how they have allied themselves into blocs or how they've coordinated their efforts, etc?

[@M.M.83-U]

Renew Europe is not left, by any stretch of the term. Few big groups are better. Some more in depth videos in the details and subdivisions of each group, plus the non group bound MeP will be greatly appreciated.

[@_o..o_1871]

Yeah RE is centrist. It combines policies on both spectrum ends. I call them Liberal centrists.

[@foolmetuljakut3052]

Sidenote, because i've heard this consistently wrong in every video (here 4:48) involving the German SPD: The 'D' in the German party SPD doesn't stand for 'democratic' but for 'Deutschland' (=Germany in German), so in english it's not SDP but either SPG (Social-democratic Party of Germany) or just as the party calls itself (SPD, like in their logo).

[@samuelc431]

I think you need to clarify that the EFA are a seperate part of the Greens-EFA

[@michaelgreen1515]

The Greens also are a grouping which traditionally included left wing grass root democracy pro-tax parties that were common in places like Scandinavia but weren't especially Green. This is why SF off Ireland also find a home in there.

[@herlescraft]

This is good content :P

[@thepumking365]

How does this fit with independents? When a country's MEP doesn't align with a national party?

[@diegoyuiop]

"Non-inscrits", which means less funds and places in commissions and such

[@edipires15]

You can be part of a political group without being member of a national party: there’s a MEP from Luxembourg who was part of a national party but is now an independent still sitting with a political group

[@timothylaukens9564]

Greens in Europe didn't form the European Free Alliance, the formed the European Green Party who then allied with the EFA which is a regionalist coalition.

[@hugodoppel1657]

I think a video on La France Insoumise would be very interesting

[@GrazeOficial]

Proud of Spain citizens being so involved in EU politics

[@peterfireflylund]

What is Iratxe García’s reputation in Spain? Does she came across as stupid, ignorant, and utterly fossilized in her Socialist (Communist) views, the way she does to me in Denmark? If I were a Social Democrat, which I am not, I would hate to have my views represented by her!

[@user-wi6uk3om3j]

con los partidos más corruptos, sí señor

[@_extrathicc]

@@peterfireflylund Spain is fairly left wing in general. In fact, many PSOE voters are more left wing than the party itself. Also, here the PCE (Communist Party of Spain) was one of the main forces against Franco's dictatorship and for the restoration of democracy, being also part of the group that wrote the constitution. BTW, seeing how you said "If I were a Social Democrat, which I am not" makes me think you are either a liberal or a reactionary, so... yeah, no surprise you'd hate to be represented by someone left of center. The same way most of Spain is disgusted by VOX.

[@karankapoor2701]

@@_extrathicc maybe when spain will become more like arabian countries then you'll understand who's in the wrong , look at france and Sweden

[@_extrathicc]

@@karankapoor2701 Ah, yes, the famously left wing totally not US allies arab countries like Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

[@MrPastaTube1]

The Socialdemocratic Party of Germany is SPD, not SDP. You always say SDP.

[@continentalmapper1090]

Does man care

[@MrPastaTube1]

@@continentalmapper1090 Yes.

[@KhaalixD]

Great video!

[@theconqueringram5295]

A lot of interesting groupings here.

[@ragerancher]

"We aren't a group of fascists!" "Your group literally contains the granddaughter of the creator of the fascist movement" "Yeah but no..."

[@AeneasGemini]

Tbf I would've changed the surname by now, but that being said, guilt by association is not reasonable

[@danielwebb8402]

Fritzels daughter "I'm not a rapist" Dan "You are literally the daughter of a rapist"

[@mansonsacidtrip6862]

@@danielwebb8402 If the daughter in this example was advocating for rape than this would be a fair comparison. Pretending she isn't explicitly a fascist requires you to tie yourselves into a hell of a knot

[@ragerancher]

@@AeneasGemini I mean it was a joke but let's say she doesn't exactly do anything to indicate her views differ from her grandfather... If you are going to share that name, it isn't exactly smart to also telegraph the fact you share the ideology, nor is it smart for a group to contain such a person knowing the appearance.

[@ChristianIce]

@Marcus_Peppus_ Alessandra Mussolini is a known fascist, by her own words. Her famous line is "better fascist than gay".

[@superraegun2649]

I think these groupings should be more known about in European politics. It would create a stronger European identity, allow us to follow elections in other European countries, and make The EU generally more organised. They should also start associating with parties from potential members.

[@tcb3901]

This channel is really good

[@guavaguy4397]

5:43 damn didn’t know they had Elton John as their leader.

[@mangachu3626]

7:53 "There are already a lot of left-leaning groupings" There are two Meanwhile we literally have three on the right This just doesn't make any sense.

[@nicolaeboz]

Actually three, the greens are more left leaning than S&D

[@lenno15697]

He's counting ALDE as left. Which is interesting, as imo they are more centre/centre-right liberals with the occasional centre-left party like D66 and (before Brexit) LibDems.

[@danielszekeres8003]

@@lenno15697 yes, the liberals are centrist by definition

[@mangachu3626]

@@lenno15697 But he himself described them as centrist

[@bomschhofmann1644]

@@danielszekeres8003 well there are also social liberals

[@aguy3082]

I think it's funny that they raised the bar just enough to exclude far-right groupings, but not high enough to exclude the far-left groupings. Like a jump from 20-25 members isn't much, and seems to pretty clearly be just enough to keep out the right, but a 50 seat limit would make more sense based on the overall size of the EU, but that would exclude the Left.

[@Jakromha]

From an economic standpoint, the liberals would be the most right wing. So it's clearly not about economic standpoint. The only other consistant left/right division is progressive/conservative. But this still is quite vague and depending on your definition ECR, ID, EPP and ITS could all be the most right wing, and the Left and Greens could be the most left. To me it's pretty clear it is not because of the 'far right' label, but because of how anti-European they are.

[@bloodwargaming3662]

I don't think the far left is causing as much tensions as the far right is causing around Europe, let's be real . I agree with you that if you want to keep out far right you need to keep out the far left too , for fairness but in this case the far left isn't acting as far left or causing huge problems as far right is .

[@kingrobin6582]

Far left: "Tax the rich" Far right: "Ban civil liberties" I think one is more extreme than the other

[@aguy3082]

@@kingrobin6582 This is the most intelligent thing I have read today.

[@vilena5308]

To answer you question, one needs information on the Non-attached Members. If one goes by the video, one wouldn't know they exist. There are currently 36 of them. 8 from Italy, all from Movimento 5 Stelle. 13 from Hungary, all but one from Fidesz-Magyar Polgári Szövetség-Kereszténydemokrata Néppárt. Etc.

[@Mr1Apokalypse]

The number of members in the ECR, ID and Greens is not correct. ECR is currently the smallest of the three with 63, ID is at 71 members and Greens have 73. Both ID and ECR saw drop outs in the last half year or so. This is quiet relevant because the size also determins when and how long groups can speak in committee and plenary.

[@georgejolkesky3104]

It's interesting to note that the EU political groupings follow roughly the same ideologies as the german parties'. Except it has two right-wing eurosceptic parties and that regionalist parties are grouped together with the greens. Germany is really the european model, although i'd rather live under a nordic model (with smaller parties but still with specific goals, differently than the dutch model,which is very complicated)

[@max_208]

I mean it also fits France's major political parties ALMOST perfectly (with the exception of the Eurosceptic ones, France has a bunch of small parties but no big player)

[@_o..o_1871]

Nordic countries have just a few million people. The EU groups have to represent hundreds of millions of people. Imagine the mess that the EU parliament would be should 3 MEP’s have to discuss with 3 other MEP’s and then with 10 other MEP’s on each and every topic.

[@Plutonium2000]

I hope volt gets its own grouping after the next election

[@memetopia5130]

I hope they collapse

[@praisethesun.praisedeussol6051]

@@memetopia5130 why

[@memetopia5130]

@@praisethesun.praisedeussol6051 Look at your name....

[@user-gd2rg8xg2y]

Volt are a tiny irrelevant party supported by very few people in Europe so this is extremely unlikely

[@Remcozy]

Shame that 4:13 doesn't show all the parties from the EPP

[@TheNixie1972]

1:44 typo. Subsidies is not the same as subsidiaries.

[@daa3930]

8:05 This has to be wrong. There are many EU countries which are not NATO members, such as Sweden, Finland, Ireland and Austria. Furthermore, the Nato membership is a matter of national politics, not EU politics. It's true that the parties aligned with the Left are also opponents of Nato in their respective home countries, but this video was about EP groupings, not about domestic issues. Withdrawal from Nato cannot be The Left's goal in European Parliament because EU is not an entity that could even be a Nato member.

[@happyswedme]

I think what it means is that they want to kick NATO out on the EU level and remove military alliances from the local agenda for European cohesion.

[@M.M.83-U]

More or less, they want to forbid UE members to be part of NATO and expell all military personnel and infrastructure from all UE territory.

[@user-je9kb2ce3v]

I think videos like this are really important. one of the reasons brexit happened was because people don't know how the EU works

[@Luredreier]

Any particular reason why the greens where placed left of the S&P on the left-right scale? Wouldn't it be mor eaccurate to place them to the left of Renew Europe but right of S&P?

[@MellonVegan]

That's what they did. Unless you meant left instead of right and right instead of left, in which case I agree ^^

[@omarfoster5763]

Who did the UK parties group with when they were in the EU and did their leaving change the balance of power at all?

[@n_tataris]

Volt’s own political group will be among these soon!!! 💜

[@herculeskoutalidis1369]

We must forbid Immigration from the south to the north.

[@memetopia5130]

They're a joke

[@user-gd2rg8xg2y]

Volt are irrelevant and not even remotely popular enough to form their own group

[@the8thgemmer467]

I think many of Renew’s members are far more economically right-wing than they are presented. If you look at FDP, its economic policies are actually more neoliberal than the CDU. Meanwhile, LREM and the Republicans seem to not have any notable differences. Almost all of FDP’s parties are hard neoliberal, whereas EPP’s members are generally more moderate. S&D on the other hand has many members which, when in government, change basically nothing in the economic system (such as Hollande), so I think an apt classification for it would be the left-leaning centre.

[@pekojounin]

I can say that the Spanish Ciudadanos that is in that group is actually libertarian (right-wing). And in the brink of disappearance.

[@the8thgemmer467]

@@pekojounin Interesting. Cyprus has the Democratic Front which is actually a left-leaning centre party although it failed to win a seat in 2019. In reality, however, this is just a junior coalition member in the government which is generally right-wing (and EPP), and does not do much to compromise for its votes. It supports a mixed economy, and its voting record partially confirms this, but when its vote was needed on 2 occasions by the government (first to pass the budget and then to elect the governing party’s candidate as speaker) it gave them with seemingly no compromise.

[@o_o5813]

Wooow it's very complicated and nice; EU as a single nation with its own parties (formed up from different european countries)

[@theultimatefreak666]

Is it just me or does the greens E look like the enclave symbol from fallout?

[@raffaelemartin3064]

You forgot to mention the fact that the Greens/EFA group contains, in addition to the Greens: The Europen Free Alliance (regionalist); Volt (European Federalist); The Pirates; Animal Politics EU (animals'interests).

[@robertb6889]

I’m American so I’m thinking it would be awesome to have this much political diversity of parties. Not just two equally distasteful bands of scoundrels, but not so many that you can’t hope to get anything done.

[@corpclarke]

Despite this diversity the EU has moved in a largely predictable manner over the last 40 years. The EU Parliament hasn't rejected any significant legislation proposed by the commission to my knowledge. In terms of actual idealogical and political outcomes, the US has had much more policy diversity over the last 40 years than the EU.

[@robertb6889]

@@corpclarke yes, we get wide swings back and forth between the parties and then long periods of gridlock where exactly nothing gets done, since we don't have a system that guarantees the government a working majority. We have a system with checks and balances that requires the government to effectively have a supermajority for any major changes, similar to the Affordable Health Care act, IE Obamacare. It means that the parties do everything to impede anything getting done, rather than working together, and then push as hard and extreme as they can when they happen to control both houses of congress and the presidency to satisfy their dedicated base. It means that the people in the middle are pushed out by the people at the ends, and that's part of why we have such a mess here. And if you don't like your party's direction, then your option is to vote for someone diametrically opposed which is equally unpalatable.

[@corpclarke]

@@robertb6889 that sounds like democracy to me. How it works in the EU is you vote for a party that has a manifesto but nobody actually knows which larger grouping they will end up joining. But it doesn't matter anyway because the EU Parliament is not the executive, it's just a reviewing body so it doesn't matter who you vote for anyway. Then the EU Commission (the executive, that you don't vote for) will proposal legislation and the reviewing body you voted for will make a lot of noise but rarely (if ever) not approve the legislation. Whoever you vote for seems to make no difference (euro skeptic, federalist, communist, populist, neo Liberal), "ever closer union" is and always has been the policy of the commission and the Parliament never votes against it. Lots of boxes on the ballot that ultimately mean nothing is not democracy.

[@kevinkrammer8077]

@@corpclarke The EU Parliament rarely votes against a proposal because the Commission is smart enough to get parliamentary feedback during all stages of the drafting process. It has to do that because unlike a lot of national governments, it can't just simply rely on a majority. Having that said it would of course be nice if the Parliament could also initiate the drafting process

[@corpclarke]

@@kevinkrammer8077 the EU legislative agenda has remained largely unchanged for 40 years. It can be summed up as simply "more integration". The variety of parties makes no difference. The rise of euro-skepticism in polling and of euro-skeptic parties in the parliament has made no difference. Integrationism has accelerated. The Commission has become more federalist in response to the rise of anti-federalist parties. Who you vote for in European elections, makes no difference. If 100% of the EU population voted for anti-federalist parties, the most the could do is block further integration. They could not reverse it. Compare this to the American system where there is superficially less choice, but there has actually been much greater variety in policy and outcomes. More boxes on the ballot paper doesn't actually mean more variety.

[@robz5089]

@TLDR: The german social democrats are the SPD. Not SDP, that's a funny music Band.

[@kosa9662]

There where plans to unite ECR and ID into one single party in EU parlament. If they merge they would have been in top1 or 2 by members of parlament(dont remember how many seats combined they would have)

[@karstenschuhmann8334]

What would be the benefit of such a change? They would not gain in power, but they may loose many voters as the group could be seen as to radical to be electable.

[@cosinus3539]

lol the creativity at 4:42. Just put a red background and add letters S, D and P in any order and you've got yourself a socialist party

[@mikaelvalter-lithander1247]

"There are already a lot of left leaning groupings." There are four right wing groupings, though?

[@stefanopozza314]

A bit biased...

[@mikaelvalter-lithander1247]

@@stefanopozza314 Indeed

[@Tommi414]

@@stefanopozza314 not at all, it’s simply the truth.

[@M.M.83-U]

I think we can call Renew centrist, leaving three each left and right.

[@hurri7720]

A very British either/or view from a two party system mindset. The majority of those parties are Centre with a bit centre left and a bit centre right. Only the English are stuck in that either/or mindset.

[@emeilowep]

Shouldn't it be Sassoli in the thumbnail rather than von der Leyen. This is specifically about the Parliament after all.

[@Aloyz3n]

as much as I hate some ideologies present in the parliament, I gotta admit it doesn't get any more balanced than that and I'm kinda proud of it

[@lsavtrr]

Just a quick comment: the Greek party called “SYRIZA” is pronounced - SIRR-EE-ZA

[@zedero8]

More like See-ree-za

[@waltervanbrunchem2462]

I wonder what the socialists regard as 'their' colour, if only I could get a hint from their logos...

[@DarkHarlequin]

At least thyh have had a choice. If you found a 'green party' feels like your hands are pretty much tied in terms of design colors 😋🙄

[@_o..o_1871]

Which socialists tho? I honestly have no idea why the Social Democrats prefer to regard themselves as socialists. Heck they even picked the red colour. Like dudes..calm down! You’re just a bunch of capitalists!

[@yakotako717]

Daily Reminder: Polish party "PO" isn't a center-right party, but it is a center-liberal/center-left party The don't have nothing to do with conservatism right now That party should be in "Renew Europe", but its leader - Donald Tusk, doesn't want to change position of that party, because of money...

[@ShayNoMore1]

How would he lose money?

[@L_back]

Yeah, they claim to be liberal-*conservative* and Christian-democratic, yet they’re pretty angry at conservatives and Christians.

[@alm9322]

​​@@ShayNoMore1 PO is known to receive many funds from CDU party, that sits in the EPP. I highly doubt that Liberals will be so keen on financing their campaign.

[@ShayNoMore1]

@@alm9322 makes sense The liberals have big parties too Macron party for example has enough size to do that

[@alm9322]

@@ShayNoMore1 But French won't be so interested in financing Polish politics. Germany is closer and have more interests in it.

[@denniskylling3887]

Could you do an updated version, because of the coming election?

[@Skylla54]

I would love to choose who gets elected into the parliment, because I choose a party and the party choose in their circle the member who can join. Not cool, my friends, not cool. The worst of all is, european commison who has the strongest power does got choosen by the european concil, which is faaar away from my vote. Not cool, my friends, not cool.

[@zemom.a.8171]

Imo the EU should straight up ban fascist parties. And no, thats not an exaggeration. The AFD literally has a fascist as its leading personality. Björn/Bernd höcke, who was deemed a fascist by court

[@nicks5636]

Then communist parties should be banned too.

[@zemom.a.8171]

@@nicks5636 depends. If they're fascist then yes. But there are communist/socialist parties that arent fascist. Plus europe has more history with nationalist-fascism than communist-fascism. I'm not in favor of communism(cuz I'm more of a democratic-socialist myself) but communism isnt exactly known for its fascist tendencies. Because unlike nationalist-fascism there is supposed to be no higher-class and everyone just suffers equally. At least thats the theory of communism.

[@alexanderzippel8809]

@@nicks5636 it is btw in Germany. Together with the NSDAP by Occupational Decree and SRP (Socialist Reich Party)

[@zemom.a.8171]

@@alexanderzippel8809 the NSDAP literally executed the DKP(German-communist party)

[@zemom.a.8171]

@King Crusader mind linking the "history" to me?

[@goodlookingcorpse]

Doesn't the Greens-EFA also include center-left regionalist parties?

[@noahborthwick3231]

Scotland isn’t in the EU…

[@edipires15]

@@noahborthwick3231 but Catalonia is…

[@JBinero]

The video goes over groups in the European Parliament without mentioning European Parties. It wrongfully compares national parties with parliamentary groups, which doesn't even make sense on a national level. European Parliament groupings are groupings of MEPs that largely overlap with European Parties. For instance, the EPP-group contains EPP members, and the S&D can be seen of the group of the Party of European Socialists. I think this distinction should've deserved a mention.

[@titouancolombe7156]

Renew Europe left wing ? Lmao

[@choonbox]

Typical anglophones, don't worry about it.

[@Luredreier]

8:31 Yes, there *should* be more groups. This is way too few groups to even come close to represent all the various viewpoints of Europe. 8:36 Unfairly excluding smaller groupings.

[@avantelvsitania3359]

Please do a video about the Moroccan election, and the cutting of ties with Algeria.

[@squeaksquawk4255]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which groups the UK parties were in before Brexit?

[@newstartyt3700]

Labour - Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) Conservatives - European Conservative and Reformists (ECR) Liberal Democrats - Renew Europe (RE) Brexit Party - Non-Inscrits (NI) Green Party of England and Wales - Greens/European Free Alliance (G/EFA) Scottish National Party - Greens/European Free Alliance (G/EFA) Plaid Cymru - Greens/European Free Alliance (G/EFA) Sinn Fein - The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL) Democratic Unionist Party - Non-Inscrits (NI) Alliance Party of Northern Ireland - Renew Europe (RE)

[@squeaksquawk4255]

@@newstartyt3700 Thank you.

[@Aygo84]

This overall explanation may be okay for someone not living in Europe, but it is overall very reductive. The Greens/EFA are not a federation of Green Parties & friends. It's the alliance of Green Parties (which contain very different things within it, from left-leaning green parties to centrist green liberalism) with few ideological consistency + the EFA which contain very important independentist parties like the catalan ERC or as the scottish SNP used to belong to. It also contains animalist parties as the portuguese PAN, a bunch of pirate parties, and the liberal eurofederalists from Volt. The ALDE/Renew has very different things within: it has social-liberals like the dutch D66 or neoliberals like the also dutch Rutte's VVD. It contains big-tent things like Macron's party but it also contains centrist nordic agrarian parties, among others. The Conservatives/Reformists also contain different things, not only they have conservatives such as the czech ODS, but also ultra-religious dogmatics like the dutch SGP, but mostly it contains neofascists like the franquist spanish VOX or Meloni's Fratelli which is the indirect successor of the MSI (the successor of the Italian Fascist Party). Besides, placing the Left Group on the far-left spectrum on the 8:03 diagram (knowing many of those parties have multiple nacional alliances with social-democratic parties, many of them even mimicking the social-democratic agendas as the former move towards the center) while placing the Conservatives/Reformists and the ID groups in the middle of the right-wing knowing these are full of neofascist parties, that's not very honest intelectually speaking. Besides, video after video, you insist on naming the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands as SDP and not SPD, I don't know if that's intentional or just sloppy.

[@user-gd2rg8xg2y]

ID parties along with vox and brothers of italy are not "neofascist", they are right wing. Wouldn't even call them far right since that should be used to refer to parties like Greek Golden Dawn, CasaPound in Italy, National Democratic Party of Germany or Peoples Party Our Slovakia. These parties are literally openly fascist whilst ecr and id parties have the standard hard right views of nationalism and anti immigration which are commonly held views for many voters.

[@dominationsrebellion6433]

Far Right is growing so fast in Europe. I wonder why lol?

[@darrenbutler9819]

Yeah, it is a shame.

[@legiopatrianostra4702]

traditional parties have been doing a bad job in almost all the european countries for several decades, it is not surprising.

[@criminals]

And its funny how we are being censored online as more we grow 😂

[@memetopia5130]

It's only a matter of time be before we win more and more the left and "center right" have destroyed Europe.

[@memetopia5130]

@@darrenbutler9819 it's amazing! It's finally hope for Europe.

[@JotoCraft]

Well one question to that topic would be, how many MPs are not in one of the groups you mentioned in this video and are they more right wing or somehow distributed? And are they party independent MPs, or why are they not in one of the group, besides the reason you presented with the group being too small to even form a group.

[@bobbybrandon5048]

I thought you should've gone more into the EFA component of the Green/EFA bloc. Some of them are right wing and actually sit as Conservative and Reformists, and some are left-wing euroskeptics and sit with the Left.