![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2219855644-1024x732.jpg\")
Socialists and Democrats chair Iratxe Garc\u00eda, who said she expects the group\u2019s Romanian peers to work with pro-European forces in the future, speaking at an event in Lisbon in June 2025. | Horacio Villalobos\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\nThe move exposes a gap between political red lines in Brussels and messy national realities, where the far right\u2019s rise is making it harder for mainstream parties to govern without them.<\/p>\n
Socialists in Brussels were unaware of the plans in Romania, according to two officials familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak frankly. Iratxe Garc\u00eda, chair of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), told POLITICO she expects its Romanian peers to work with pro-European forces in future.<\/p>\n
The 2024 EU election produced the most right-wing Parliament in the bloc\u2019s history. The far-right Patriots group \u2014 home to France\u2019s Marine Le Pen and Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orb\u00e1n \u2014 became the third-largest force, followed by the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists, which includes France\u2019s Giorgia Meloni, Poland\u2019s Law and Justice, and the AUR.<\/p>\n
Socialists and Democrats chair Iratxe Garc\u00eda, who said she expects the group\u2019s Romanian peers to work with pro-European forces in the future, speaking at an event in Lisbon in June 2025. | Horacio Villalobos\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Across Europe, populist right-wing parties are gaining ground as voters turn to them amid a cost-of-living squeeze and migration pressures. Mainstream conservatives have increasingly worked with them in countries including the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Croatia and Austria, infuriating center-left parties that accused the EPP of normalizing the far right during the 2024 EU election campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n The co-chair of the ECR group in the European Parliament, Patryk Jaki, told POLITICO that it is \u201cobvious\u201d his political forces can no longer be ignored.<\/p>\n