The Left in the European Parliament
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox European Parliament group The Left in the European Parliament (The Left) is a left-wing political group of the European Parliament established in 1995.[1][2] Prior to January 2021 it was named the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (Template:Langx, GUE/NGL).[3]
The group is mainly composed of democratic socialist parties, as well as some communist parties, the social democratic Greek Syriza and the populist Italian Five Star Movement.[4][5]Template:Refn
History
Formation
In 1995, the enlargement of the European Union led to the creation of the Nordic Green Left (NGL) group of parties. The NGL merged with the Confederal Group of the European United Left (GUE) on 6 January 1995,[6] forming the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left.[7][8][9] The NGL suffix was added to the name of the expanded group at the insistence of Swedish and Finnish MEPs.[10] The group initially consisted of MEPs from the Finnish Left Alliance, the Swedish Left Party, the Danish Socialist People's Party, the United Left of Spain (including the Spanish Communist Party), the Synaspismos of Greece, the French Communist Party, the Portuguese Communist Party, the Communist Party of Greece, and the Communist Refoundation Party of Italy.
In 1998 Ken Coates, an MEP expelled from the UK Labour Party and who co-founded the Independent Labour Network, joined the group.[11]
In 1999 the German Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and the Greek Democratic Social Movement (DIKKI) joined as full members, while the five MEPs elected from the list of the French Trotskyist alliance LO–LCR and the one MEP for the Dutch Socialist Party joined as associate members.
In 2002 four MEPs from the French Citizen and Republican Movement and one from the Danish People's Movement against the EU also joined the group. In 2004 no MEPs were elected from LO–LCR and DIKKI — which was undergoing a dispute with its leader over the party constitution — and the French Citizen and Republican Movement did not put forward candidates. MEPs from the Portuguese Left Bloc, the Irish Sinn Féin, the Progressive Party of Working People of Cyprus, and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia joined the group. The Danish Socialist People's Party, a member of the Nordic Green Left, left the group to instead sit in the Greens–European Free Alliance group.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
In 2009 no MEPs were elected from the Italian Communist Refoundation Party and the Finnish Left Alliance. MEPs from the Irish Socialist Party, the Socialist Party of Latvia, and the French Left Party joined the group.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
In 2013 one MEP from the Croatian Labourists – Labour Party also joined the group. In 2014 no MEPs were elected from the Irish Socialist Party, the Socialist Party of Latvia, and the Croatian Labourists – Labour Party. MEPs from the Spanish Podemos as well as EH Bildu and the Dutch Party for the Animals joined the group, while MEPs from the Italian Communist Refoundation Party and the Finnish Left Alliance re-entered parliament and rejoined. The Communist Party of Greece, a founding member of the group, decided to leave and instead sit as Non-Inscrits.[12]
In 2019 no MEPs were elected from the French Communist Party, the Danish People's Movement against the EU, the Dutch Socialist Party, and from the Italian parties The Left and the Communist Refoundation Party. MEPs from the French La France insoumise, the Belgian Workers' Party of Belgium, the German Human Environment Animal Protection Party, the Irish Independents 4 Change, and the Danish Red-Green Alliance joined the group.
10th European Parliament (2024–present)
In 2024 MEPs from the Italian parties Italian Left and Five Star Movement joined the group.[13][14]
Positions
According to its 1994 constituent declaration, the group is opposed to the present European Union political structure, but it is committed to integration.[15] That declaration sets out three aims for the construction of another European Union, the total change of institutions to make them fully democratic, breaking with neoliberal monetarist policies, and a policy of co-development and equitable cooperation.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The group wants to disband the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and strengthen the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).Script error: No such module "Unsubst".Template:Update inline
The group is divided between reformism and revolution, leaving it up to each party to decide on the manner they deem best suited to achieve their aims. As such, it has simultaneously positioned itself as insiders within the European institutions, enabling it to influence the decisions made by co-decision; and as outsiders by its willingness to seek another Europe, which would abolish the Maastricht Treaty.[16]
GUE/NGL has been split on the issue of Russia. On 1 March 2022, 7 MEPs out of the group's 37 voted against the parliament's resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while 10 also abstained in the vote that passed 637–14.[17] Even before the war, there have been tensions in the group, especially with the Irish MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly working to defuse sanctions on Russia placed because of the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.[18]
Member parties
MEPs may be full or associate members.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Full members must accept the constitutional declaration of the group.
- Associate members need not fully do so, but they may sit with the full members.
National parties may be full or associate members.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
- Full member parties must accept the constitutional declaration of the group.
- Associate member parties may include parties that do not have MEPs (e. g., French Trotskyist parties which did not get elected in the 2004 European elections), are from states that are not part of the European Union, or do not wish to be full members.
MEPs
10th European Parliament
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9th European Parliament
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The initial member parties for the 9th European Parliament was determined at the first meeting on 29 May 2019.[22]
8th European Parliament
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7th European Parliament
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6th European Parliament
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5th European Parliament
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4th European Parliament
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Organization
Presidents
| Chairperson | Took office | Left office | Country (Constituency) |
Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alonso Puerta | File:Alonso Puerta 2012 (cropped).jpg | 1995 | 1999 | Script error: No such module "flag". | File:Logo Izquierda Unida, versión bocadillo.svg United Left |
| Francis Wurtz | File:Francis Wurtz Front de Gauche 2009-03-08.jpg | 1999 | 2009 | Script error: No such module "flag". (Île-de-France) |
File:Logo – Parti communiste français (2018).svg Communist Party |
| Lothar Bisky | File:Lothar Bisky Headshot Bundestagwahl 2005.jpg | 2009 | 2012 | Template:GER | File:Logo Die Linke (2023).svg The Left |
| Gabi Zimmer | File:Gabriele Zimmer 01.JPG | 2012 | 2019 | Template:GER | File:Logo Die Linke (2023).svg The Left |
| Manon Aubry* | File:Manon Aubry (cropped).jpg | 2019 | present | Script error: No such module "flag". | File:Logo France Insoumise.svg La France Insoumise |
| Martin Schirdewan* | File:Erfurter Parteitag Juni 2022 - 52172484264 (cropped).jpg | 2019 | present | Template:GER | File:Logo Die Linke (2023).svg The Left |
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- Since 2019 The Left group has had two co-chairpeople.
European Parliament results
| Election year | No. of overall seats won |
+/– |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Template:Composition bar | |
| 1999 | Template:Composition bar | 8 Increase |
| 2004 | Template:Composition bar | 1 Decrease |
| 2009 | Template:Composition bar | 6 Decrease |
| 2014 | Template:Composition bar | 17 Increase |
| 2019 | Template:Composition bar | 11 Decrease |
| 2024 | Template:Composition bar | 6 Increase |
See also
- European Anti-Capitalist Left
- Initiative of Communist and Workers' Parties
- List of communist parties represented in European Parliament
- Now the People
- Party of the European Left
Notes
References
Template:European Parliament groups Template:Party of the European Left Template:Political organisations at European Union level
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