The centrist forces that have ruled Brussels for decades may no longer be able to pass legislation and could have to team up with right-wing and far-right parties, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola warned Thursday. Metsola was speaking at the EU summit a day after members of Parliament rejected a landmark proposal to cut red tape for businesses amid division over how far the EU should go in scaling back its laws. That vote sparked anger in national capitals. “Yesterday’s decision by the European Parliament is unacceptable,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said upon arrival at the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, adding the decision was “a fatal mistake and must be corrected.”  However, Metsola said she believes the Parliament will find a way to reach agreement on key issues, even if it involves a break with the traditional ways of working. “Majorities are always strongest from the center out because we believe that this is the way to move Europe forward,” she said in a press conference after meeting the EU leaders. “But if this is not possible, I know that this House [the Parliament] will deliver regardless. Especially because the prime ministers around the table were unanimous in saying that this needs to happen.”  The Parliament’s major centrist groups — the European People’s Party (of Ursula von der Leyen and Metsola herself), Renew and the Socialists and Democrats — had agreed to back the red tape proposal. But in a secret ballot, a number of Socialist MEPs rebelled and voted against the deal. MEPs will vote again in November, and the EPP may need to rely on the far right to push through the deregulation package.   When asked how she felt about the right wing being needed to back legislation, Metsola said she would prefer majorities to come from the center but that this won’t always be possible. “To be very clear, the message to me from the Council is get the numbers where you find them,” Metsola said. “I have an institutional responsibility, I need to keep majorities working and I need to keep groups working in sync together. “Some positions cannot be bridged but many can,” Metsola concluded, adding that the centrist forces have found agreement on the likes of defense funding and agriculture policy but struggled to do so on migration and green simplification. “It’s not about majority; if anything, it’s about pragmatism,” she said. For decades, the main centrist forces have found ways to work together and exclude the far right. However, groups on the right enjoyed great success in the 2024 EU election, and working with those groups is becoming less taboo. Metsola said she had asked leaders for “their help” to make sure that MEPs “mirror the agenda” of the countries they represent, especially as some of the Socialist MEPs who voted down the agreement are part of governments pushing for the simplification package, such as the Germans, Austrians and Poles. There will likely be a lot more simplification proposals for the Parliament to vote on. In a letter dated Oct. 20, obtained by POLITICO, the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and others called for “a constant stream” of simplification proposals from the European Commission.

BRUSSELS — With four years still to go until the end of their mandates in the European Parliament, Italy’s center-left MEPs are already breaking up with Brussels. In the cafés and pizzerias of the EU quarter, they are plotting their return to “the beautiful country” — a move only exacerbated by regional elections this fall. The left-leaning Democratic Party (PD) lawmakers’ near-total obsession with local politics is making them increasingly irrelevant in the European Parliament, where they are seen as punching below their weight.  Despite being the biggest national group in the Socialists and Democrats caucus, the PD is frequently outmaneuvered by smaller delegations with more discipline and a better knowledge of the Brussels machine. (The situation is also not helped by two of the Italians being suspended.) The future election of the S&D group leader — currently Spain’s Iratxe García Pérez — during the midterm reshuffle in 2027 will be a litmus test of who matters the most inside the Socialist party. It should be a moment for the Italian left to step up, but it is an open secret in Brussels that the PD’s heavyweights are more interested in power games back home.  Ever since its creation in 2007, the PD — currently the largest opposition party to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy — has been ridden by tribal warfare, ideological divides and personality clashes.  This is proving a major liability in the Socialist power struggles in Brussels, where internal unity often matters more than size. “The Germans and Spaniards are fewer, but they matter more,” said a PD lawmaker who, like others quoted in this story, was granted anonymity to breach confidences. “Unlike the Spanish and German delegations, the PD don’t vote united. It’s not clear who they respond to,” echoed a non-Italian Socialist party insider. Party lifers who have made a name for themselves in Italy are seen as out of touch in a city that thrives on technical expertise and behind-the-scenes schmoozing with foreign colleagues.  “The PD have three or four microgroups within the delegation, and we notice that some have tensions with [party leader] Elly Schlein,” said a Socialist MEP from another delegation.  The future election of the Socialist group leader — currently Spain’s Iratxe García Pérez — during the midterm reshuffle in 2027 will be a litmus test for the party. | Ronald Wittek/EPA Critics say that a majority of Italy’s center-left MEPs spend more time canvassing in their domestic constituencies than operating in the rarefied backrooms of Brussels’ power centers. Only a handful have a permanent flat in the EU capital, sniped another PD insider.  “The new MEPs appear to be on loan to the European Parliament,” said David Allegranti, an Italian journalist and PD expert. “They needed a one-year placement, but they’re coming back for the regional elections this year — and potentially for the national vote in 2027,” he added.  Such is the extent of their political machinations to return to frontline national politics that the Italian daily Il Foglio compared the PD’s Brussels squad to the Count of Monte Cristo, the Alexandre Dumas character who spent years plotting his escape (and revenge) from a prison cell on a rocky fortress island.  But unlike Dumas’ hero, the MEPs are not seeking vengeance. They want a road back to political relevance.  TIME TO GO HOME The first, and so far the only, PD lawmaker to have left Brussels is Matteo Ricci, who is contesting a local election on Sept. 28 and 29 in the Marche region in central Italy.  A PD bigwig and former mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, chair of the European Parliament’s environment and food safety committee, has announced he will run for the presidency of his native Puglia region in the fall.  If he wins the election, his party colleague Annalisa Corrado — a Schlein loyalist — is the favorite to take up his post as the head of the European Parliament’s powerful environment committee.  Other bigwigs, such as the former mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, and the ex-governor of Emilia-Romagna, Stefano Bonaccini, are rumored to be trying to return to Rome as national MPs in the upcoming general election in 2027, according to multiple PD insiders. It is also important to note that it is not only the Socialists who are pining for their homeland. EU lawmaker Pasquale Tridico from the anti-establishment 5Star Movement will contest the election to lead the Calabria region in October. “Few of them speak English and are interested in European topics,” the PD lawmaker said of his colleagues. “This reflects badly on the whole delegation.” The PD has “three or four microgroups within the delegation, and we notice that some have tensions with PD party leader Elly Schlein,” said one Socialist MEP. | Michele Maraviglia/EPA Despite the exodus, the PD does have some powerful and respected figures within the European Socialists, who have built a good reputation.  Disputing the notion that the PD punches below its weight, a third Socialist MEP pointed to Italian colleague Camilla Laureti’s position as vice chair of the S&D and to Fabrizia Panzetti clinching the powerful secretary-general post.  The chair of the PD’s delegation, Nicola Zingaretti, declined to be interviewed for this story. NOT PULLING THEIR WEIGHT Italian politicians with big ambitions rarely dream of becoming MEPs. What is generally seen as a second-rate job, however, became a safe haven for a handful of political has-beens who were left jobless at home — and weren’t completely in sync with PD leader Schlein’s lurch to the left. By picking a mix of party lifers, local caciques and media celebrities, the PD emerged from the 2024 European election as the largest Socialist delegation in Parliament. But this didn’t translate into real power in Brussels. To everyone’s surprise, Schlein refused to claim the Socialist leadership last summer even though this is generally awarded to the largest national delegation. In exchange, she secured an informal agreement with the other delegations that the PD would lead the group in the second half of the parliamentary mandate starting in mid-2027. However, with over a year left until the reshuffle, this promise is unlikely to materialize. The Spanish delegation is eager to retain control of the group and is pushing to extend the mandate of incumbent García Pérez to secure stability. Meanwhile, the German delegation is also expected to vie for the position — especially if it does not secure the European Parliament presidency. The Parliament president job is meant to go to a Socialist MEP in 2027, according to an informal agreement struck last year with the center-right European People’s Party. Yet, such an outcome would reignite calls to replace the incumbent Socialist European Council President António Costa with an EPP figure in the midterm reshuffle.   One high-up Socialist MEP suggested that the Italians would likely give away the presidency to a Spaniard or a German in exchange for keeping the secretary-general post. “[The PD’s group has] people that are very popular in Italy … [but they] have not managed to build beyond that [in Brussels], which limits their potential,” said a fourth Socialist MEP.

German MEP Carola Rackete, who became famous for a public spat over migration with Italy’s far-right chief Matteo Salvini, announced her resignation from the European Parliament on Wednesday. “My candidacy and mandate have always aimed to contribute to the renewal of the German Left party — a process that is progressing successfully,” Rackete said in a statement. Rackete, a German conservation ecologist, social and climate activist, was elected to the Parliament with The Left group in the 2024 European election.   She shot to prominence in 2019 as captain of the rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, when she defied Italy’s closed port policy by docking in Lampedusa with 53 saved migrants. Rackete was arrested shortly after the landing but later cleared by an Italian judge, who ruled she acted out of necessity and did not commit any criminal offense. Following the Lampedusa incident, Salvini — who was serving as Italy’s interior minister at the time — publicly criticized Rackete, calling her a “German criminal,” a “rich and spoiled communist” and an “accomplice of human traffickers,” in a series of Facebook posts and public comments. In 2019, Rackete sued Salvini for defamation. But a Milan court ruled in 2023 it could not proceed with the case against Salvini, reportedly for procedural reasons. Rackete was named as one of the POLITICO 28 Class of 2020 “Dreamers,” highlighting her defiance of Italy’s anti-immigration policies. During her year in Parliament, Rackete served on the committees for environment, monetary affairs, and agriculture, where she focused on climate justice and advocated for those most affected by inaction on global warming. Her seat is expected to be filled by Martin Günther, a fellow candidate from The Left in Germany who ran unsuccessfully alongside Rackete in the 2024 election. “I will continue Carola’s fight for climate justice using the resources of the mandate. As an economist, the economic aspects of this struggle are especially important to me. A more social and ecological EU will only be possible if we reclaim it from the super-rich and their lobbyists,” Günther said in a statement.

MADRID — Europe’s far-right leaders huddled in Madrid on Saturday as a show of force following Donald Trump’s reelection. Boasting about a new era of conservative governments in Europe under the motto “Make Europe Great Again,” the Patriots for Europe party, the third-largest EU political family, held its first rally since its inception after last summer’s EU election. On the menu? Scrapping green policy, battling Islam, taking down Brussels EU governance, migration, opposing gender and family diversity, and fighting “population replacement.” “Our friend Trump, the Trump tornado, has changed the world in just a couple of weeks. An era has ended. Today, everyone sees that we are the future,” crowed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the most senior of the leaders at the really in the Spanish capital. “We’re facing a global tipping point,” said France’s Marine Le Pen, while celebrating that, since Trump’s inauguration, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “has all but disappeared from the screens.” The guests, mostly Vox’s most loyal supporters and political muscle from across Spain, descended on Madrid Airport’s Marriott Conference Center to fill a 2,000-seat auditorium, armed their Dior scarfs and Barbour jackets. They came to listen to leaders including Orbán, Le Pen, the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders, Italy’s Matteo Salvini, Czechia’s Andrej Babiš and Austria’s Herbert Kickl, who joined via video link as he finalizes negotiations in Vienna to become Austria’s new chancellor. One after the other, the leaders vowed to “reconquer” Europe’s governments from Socialist, liberal and center-right forces — building an explicit parallel to Spain’s “Reconquista,” when Christian kingdoms reconquered the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rulers in the Middle Ages. Following his landslide victory in Austria, Kickl argued that “people everywhere are rising against the impositions of the EU centralists and left-wing ideologies,” and promised a new model of European cooperation based on national sovereignty. GREEN DEAL AND IMMIGRATION The leaders agreed the EU and the European Commission president are the source of Europe’s social and economic malaise. “The Green Deal is dead,” said Czechia’s Babiš, former prime minister and leader of ANO, currently topping the polls. “Brussels is leading us down a road that brings us to [economic] blackout and economic collapse,” he added. “Energy policy is a fiasco, dragging our economies down. … Industrialists are openly rebelling against absurd and suicidal dictates,” said Le Pen. The European migration pact also was in the spotlight, with all leaders at the rally blaming Brussels for incoming migrants. “People have had enough of illegal immigration. And I ask you, do you have enough of crime in Spain? Do you have a lot of Islamic immigration in Spain? Do you have enough of woke insanity?” asked Dutch far-right leader Wilders, whose PVV party has been in government since May last year. “Yes!” cheered the crowd as they repeated “Viva España.” “You were the first who rolled back Islam and restored the rich heritage of Christianity in your country,” Wilders said. “That’s why we are great admirers of Spain.” All the leaders at the rally also echoed a rejection of gender and sexual diversity, including repeated celebrations of Trump’s two-gender only policy.  “We will defend Christianity and traditional values. … We will defend traditional and normal family: mother, father and many children,” said Krzysztof Bosak, leader of Poland’s Konfederacja. LOOKING FOR ALLIES But the Patriots for Europe are well aware they will not get far in Brussels’ democratic structures without other allies, as they currently are the third force in the European Parliament with 86 seats, and, for now, only hold one head of government out of 27. Le Pen argued that, despite Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni belonging to another political party, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), “there are a number of issues we can all agree on.” “And the issue of the day is: Are we or are we not going to stop with this Green Deal nonsense?” Le Pen said, arguing that the ECR will team up with them, but also with certain members of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP). The EPP, the biggest European party holding the most leadership positions, has been flirting with the groups to its right, having voted alongside the Patriots to water down the EU’s deforestation regulation. However, they have for now stuck to their alliance with Socialists and Democrats and liberals. “You must finally choose,” said Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini: “We ask you for the vision and courage to stop collaborating with the socialists and the left in Brussels. … The EPP must choose between a disastrous past and a future of change.” At the same time, leader of Spain’s Vox party and the president of the Patriots, Santiago Abascal, said: “We have to reach out permanently to our allies in Europe,” wishing Alternative for Germany’s Alice Weidel, from the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, success in the upcoming German election. “We have to know how to put aside our differences and live with them without that impeding constant cooperation in the face of common enemies,” Abascal said. Prior to the rally, leaders on Friday met behind closed doors followed by a gala dinner with special guest Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, a leading U.S. Republican-linked conservative think tank.

The European Conservatives and Reformists group, the political family home to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, wants the center-right European People’s Party to drop the cordon sanitaire and form an alliance with far-right Patriots for Europe, according to a letter seen by POLITICO.  In a clear message to the EPP, the ECR’s letter states that groups should “build bridges across political lines, and deliver results that benefit European citizens and businesses.” The previous legislative term, it added, was “heavily affected by the direction set by a center-left majority.” The letter is an answer to Patriots’ group chair Jordan Bardella’s call on Jan. 28 for the European Union’s right-wing factions to unite to kill the Green Deal together. “We have long underscored the need to reassess its timelines and implementation to ensure that it does not jeopardize our industries or the livelihoods of our citizens,” the letter said. The European election in June 2024 marked a pivotal point toward a right-wing majority with the objective to backtrack on the European Commission’s flagship Green Deal. The EPP has not shied away from using the right-wing majority to push forward with deregulation in the last months, namely to water down the deforestation regulation. However, the EPP has consistently rejected a structural cooperation with the far-right Patriots, which is led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, because that would break long-standing alliances with both the left-leaning Socialists and Democrats and Renew Europe’s liberals.

BRUSSELS ― In 2024, you’d be forgiven for feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu. Syria was back in the news, European leaders had to focus again on migration and, across the Atlantic, Donald Trump is preparing for his return to the White House, sending more shock waves through the political establishment in an unprecedented year of elections. The wars that defined 2023 continue to rage, in some cases escalate, at great cost to human life.  And, as our charts show, even all that could be overshadowed by the threat posed by a world getting hotter, which looms over humanity’s future. Despite a plethora of warnings from scientists and international organizations, countries are still failing to contain global warming — and, if his rhetoric is to be believed, Trump’s second term could further weaken the international effort. So this holiday season may not feel as jolly as it should. But as we hope for cheerier news in 2025, POLITICO’s data journalism team is here to illustrate how the old year played out. WAR, WAR AND ANOTHER WAR With over 44,500 Palestinians dead and a further 105,000 estimated to be wounded, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, the humanitarian cost of the Israel-Hamas war continues to rise. Geospatial analysts estimate that almost 60 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip had likely been damaged by November 2024, meaning many of the 1.9 million internally displaced people there will have no home to return to. The Israel-Hamas war increased hostilities across the region, with assassinations, bombings and missile barrages spilling the Iran-Israel proxy conflict into the open. After almost a year of exchanging missile strikes, conflict between Israel and Hezbollah peaked in October, with Israel’s ground invasion in southern Lebanon, although attacks reduced significantly following a cease-fire agreement.  In neighboring Syria, the dramatic overthrow of Bashar Assad’s regime, swiftly followed by Israeli airstrikes on the country’s weapon stocks and the arrival of ground forces via the demilitarized zone, increased uncertainty in the region.  At the other end of Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. Ukrainians chalked up some successes in 2024, becoming a dominant force in the Black Sea despite the country’s tiny navy, and mounting a counteroffensive into Russia’s Kursk region in August. But they are ending this year on the back foot, having lost many of their territorial gains and having seen many of their soldiers killed. But Russia’s constant pressing comes at a huge cost for its troops too, with the past few months being extraordinarily brutal. The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, estimated there were 53 Russian casualties for every square kilometer of Ukrainian territory gained between September and November of 2024.  BLOCKBUSTER ELECTION YEAR With votes in more than 60 countries including France, the U.K., Bulgaria, India, Japan and the U.S., as well as for the European Parliament, 2024 was a huge election year. As right-wing forces broadly consolidated their position firmly in the political mainstream, the polls themselves saw social media platforms like TikTok have ever greater influence and even shape campaigns. Europe’s lurch to the right was on display in many of this year’s votes. In some countries, far-right parties rose to power; in others, they gained a position to exert significant pressure on governments. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists became EU power brokers after the June European Parliament election. French President Emmanuel Macron’s shock decision to call a snap election in the aftermath of the EU vote plunged the country into political chaos. What was interesting is that the far right’s success in many of the votes called for an update to the stereotypical image of their voters being angry old men. Instead, elections, exit polls and surveys in different parts of the bloc suggested young voters were increasingly throwing their support behind far-right parties. A German youth survey showed the growing popularity of the Alternative for Germany party among the country’s youngest voters. The forecast that artificial intelligence would take over our democracy did not quite come to pass — but recent events offered us a chilling preview. In December, Romania’s top court annulled a presidential election after ultranationalist underdog Cǎlin Georgescu won the first round, citing evidence of widespread interference and a TikTok influence operation — allegedly orchestrated from Russia. And while TikTok did not give Europe’s far-right forces an outright victory in June’s European Parliament election, it did provide them with a huge platform to reach new voters. PANIC ABOUT MIGRATION LIKE IT’S 2015 Wars and political instability in the EU’s neighborhood, coupled with a marked rightward shift in the political landscape, put migration firmly back on European leaders’ agenda. A surge in support for hard-right, anti-immigration parties in several European countries led governments to adopt increasingly restrictive policies. Gone are the days of Europe’s open-door policy for Syrian refugees, epitomized by then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s slogan “We can do it!” Securing Europe’s borders has become the No. 1 priority, and in some places the political debate has even started to include removing migrants from the EU’s territory entirely. Brussels has been no exception to this reality. The European Commission, reconstituted on Dec. 1 under President Ursula von der Leyen (who was confirmed by a right-leaning majority in the European Parliament), has already promised to get tough on migration. Policies once considered fringe and extreme, such as setting up “return hubs” and “hot spots” in third countries to hold asylum-seekers waiting for their claims to be processed, as well as forced deportations, are now firmly in the political mainstream. Schengen — the world’s largest free-travel area and a crown jewel of European integration — is also falling victim to anti-immigration sentiment. Several countries including Germany have reintroduced temporary border controls within the zone, citing security risks, terrorism and migration as reasons for the renewed checks. These restrictions are supposed to be temporary, but some have been extended so many times that they have become nearly permanent. AND EUROPE’S PROBLEMS DON’T STOP THERE … The EU has other concerns going into 2025. With disappointing economic growth, issues with competitiveness and a struggling industrial sector, the last thing Europe needs right now is a trade war.  But that might be exactly what it gets. Trump’s threat of 10 percent tariffs on all goods and a whopping 60 percent on Chinese goods has Europeans scared of possible knock-on effects. It will be a struggle for the bloc to juggle a conflict between the U.S., the EU’s largest trading partner, and China, its second-largest trading partner and largest source of imports.  … OR THERE Putting tariff terror into perspective is the fact that 2024 is on course to be the hottest year on record. It will also be the first year that is 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels. The inability to contain warming to 1.5 degrees — a commitment countries made at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference — is symptomatic of international climate cooperation’s failure. The latest U.N. assessment confirmed that global climate action is woefully insufficient. Current plans and policies will lead to 2.6 to 3.1 degrees Celsius of global warming this century, with no prospect of limiting the temperature increase to the 1.5C target. The Paris Agreement’s upper limit of 2C is also at grave risk.  The severity and frequency of dangerous heat waves, destructive storms and other disasters rises with every fraction of warming. Scientists say that with warming of 3C the world could pass several points of no return that would dramatically alter the planet’s climate and increase sea levels, including through the collapse of polar ice caps. This year’s COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, was once again marked by controversies and contradictions. While negotiators reached a deal that would see wealthier countries provide a minimum of $300 billion per year by 2035 to aid poorer nations in their battle against climate change, several analyses found that this amount falls far short of the trillions of dollars needed to help vulnerable countries that will have to withstand droughts and floods, rising seas and worsening storms. Trump’s return in January casts doubt not only on the future of the deal but international climate conferences as a whole. The president-elect, who has called global warming a hoax, is likely to roll back many U.S. climate policies at a terrible time for the planet. Júlia Vadler contributed to this report.

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column. What a year, what a year. If you are the type of reader who enjoys remembering the painful as well as the painfully funny, this column has you covered. If you’re a different type of reader, are you absolutely certain that watching videos of puppies on the internet would not be a better use of your time right now? After the two decades that seem to have passed since the beginning of January, the year is finally coming to an end. The United Nations called 2024 the “super year” of elections — which sounds accurate. It also said that the fact that 3.7 billion voters headed to ballot boxes in 72 countries was synonymous with “strengthening democracy and good governance.” That feels slightly less on the nose. For those of us in Europe, the super season kicked off with mystery. What on earth is a Spitzenkandidat? Are we really supposed to know who Nicolas Schmit is? Luckily for everyone, it turned out we didn’t need to know either one, as her Royal Highness and Empress of Europe Ursula von der Leyen (actual title, we checked) was confirmed for a second mandate at the helm of the European Commission. Von der Leyen’s swoop back to power was accompanied by a sharp shift to the right in European politics — sometimes even to the far right. The Commission president has a new bestie in Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s right-wing prime minister. And in June, the European Parliament welcomed newcomers like far-right influencer Alvise Pérez, YouTube sensation Fidias Panayiotou and muzzle enthusiast Diana Șoșoacă. What a team. Of course, with all of the attention going to a blond woman, Emmanuel Macron had to do something spectacular. Having watched his party go down in flames in the European Parliament election, the French president decided to self-immolate with a snap parliamentary election back home, plunging his country into a political inferno that continues to burn today. No one’s talking about VDL now! Then the Brits had a go at the democracy thing. Sandwiching their vote between two rounds of French balloting, they decided Keir Starmer, arguably the most boring man in politics, was the guy they needed to shake things up. Ursula von der Leyen’s swoop back to power was accompanied by a sharp shift to the right in European politics. | Freferick Florin/Getty Images Finally, it was America’s turn. As we all know, Donny the Menace came back with a vengeance. Some in Europe are worried that the incoming U.S. president might pull out of NATO, launch a trade war and hand over a chunk of Ukraine to the luckiest Russian ever, Vladimir Putin. But we can all agree to rejoice in one thing. As he told some of his supporters before the election, we’ll never “have to vote again.” 

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column. I say we’ve waited long enough. Those among us who are passionate about the topic have followed every twist and turn of this epic drama — all the names whispered in the corridors, the not-so-secret backdoor deals leaked by insiders and the bold public statements.  Is the moment here, at last? Will we finally get the answer we’ve been looking for, whether we like it or not? It might not be the sequel that Brussels deserves, but it is the sequel it needs right now, despite long delays and accusations of ignoring factual truths … Gladiator II hit the cinemas last week. It only took director Ridley Scott a little over 20 years to release his second historical(-ish) drama set in ancient Rome, complete with gladiators riding rhinos and sharks swimming in the Coliseum. And if you — like some historians — doubt the film’s accuracy, the Oscar-nominated director has explained his logical approach to writing the script: “‘Excuse me, mate, were you there?’ No? Well, shut the f**k up then.” If Scott can so eloquently convince Hollywood to make Gladiator 2.0 happen, surely Ursula von der Leyen can get the European Parliament to approve her new class of commissioners. After yet another closed-door meeting where the leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups discussed the fate of the six executive vice president nominees (plus Hungary’s candidate), we know … roughly as much as we did before. The real journalists — as opposed to yours truly, filling in this column temporarily and undeservingly — at POLITICO Towers are hopeful that next week’s Parliament vote will be the last. Cooler heads seem to be prevailing: If that’s true, we could soon go home with a glass of mulled wine and be done with it already. If it isn’t and those cooler heads get heated, they might decide to send VDL back to the drawing board and force her to start from scratch. 26 live blogs covering each commissioner’s grilling and all. Christmas ruined for the Brussels bubble! Whether my esteemed colleagues’ hopes of a peaceful approval of commissioners on Nov. 27 by the European Parliament will be met or not, we can all agree the last six months have been quite a ride: from the European election, followed by a surprise French parliamentary election, to incumbent commissioners dropped unceremoniously and nominees with an athletic mindset ushered in. Brussels, are you not entertained? CAPTION COMPETITION “Welcome to our TED talk, today we’re gonna talk about our favorite craft beers.” Can you do better? Email us at gpoloni@politico.eu or get in touch on X @POLITICOEurope. Last week we gave you this photo: Thanks for all the entries. Here’s the best from our postbag — there’s no prize except for the gift of laughter, which I think we can all agree is far more valuable than cash or booze. “Snog, Marry, Avoid.” by Anonymous

It’s been a long, winding road for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to assemble her team of 26 commissioners since the start of her second term. In September, von der Leyen announced the group of people who would take on key appointments and portfolios for the next five years amid a complex and complicated geopolitical landscape. And she and her team hoped for a Dec. 1 start date. While her 26 nominees had faced the European Parliament for long, grueling hearings, her timeline seemed to be in trouble by the time the hearings ended on Nov. 12. The Parliament gave a green light to 19 of her commissioners but failed to agree on the final six executive vice-presidents, as well as Hungary’s Oliver Várhelyi. Infighting between political factions that have governed the European Union in relative alignment for years has reached a breaking point. The Parliament’s political families that supported von der Leyen for a second term, such as the liberal group Renew and the Socialists, have increased pressure on her European People’s Party (EPP) after she accepted a hard-right nominee from Italy, Raffaele Fitto, for executive vice president. In turn, the EPP launched a hostile campaign against the Socialists’ candidate, Teresa Ribera, as the Socialists continue to blame the EPP for using the right-wing majority in the Parliament to their advantage. In the coming days, Brussels will await with bated breath what the next twist and turn might be: Will the 26 nominees move forward untouched? Will one have to be sacrificed for a reasonable start date to the Commission? Or will political groups in the Parliament stand firm and delay the kickoff to 2025? We’ve mapped out the ifs, ands or buts, step-by-step.