EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola began this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg with a bit of housekeeping, reprimanding right-wing MEPs for their “aggressive behavior” during the last plenary in June. Their crime? Celebrating the adoption of a landmark illegal migrant deportation act, the Return Regulation, by chanting “Send them back!” in the plenary chamber.
“Aggressive chanting, protests, pointing fingers at colleagues, and filming them are unacceptable acts,” Metsola told her colleagues on Monday afternoon, July 6th, after opening the monthly session.
“There is a limit, which was crossed during the last plenary session,” the president underlined, earning a round of applause from the left side of the chamber. “Aggressive behaviour damages the reputation of this institution and undermines the values we are so committed to defending,” she added.
The remarks followed an extensive lobbying campaign involving nearly 70 civil rights NGOs. Last month, they signed an open letter and even sent a delegation to Metsola’s cabinet to pressure her into publicly addressing the issue and, if possible, impose sanctions on those who participated in the chant and drive they called “a clear increase in misogynist and sexist, LGBTI-phobic as well as racist and antisemitic hate speech” in the EU Parliament.
In the end, Metsola did warn the misbehaving MEPs of future sanctions if incidents like this happened again, but refrained from handing out punishments right away—probably to spare the members of his own EPP group from humiliation, many of whom also participated in the chanting based on the videos.
“I can assure you that we will respond accordingly, applying the rules impartially and taking the necessary measures to ensure that scenes such as those we witnessed last month are never repeated,” Metsola said.
However, there’s a reason the sincere outburst of joy in the plenary chamber instantly went viral online. The adoption of the Return Regulation was not only one of the rare victories made possible by EPP finally joining national conservative groups on an issue, but also because right-wing members have been fighting for more effective deportation policies for over a decade.
Although not perfect, the Return Regulation finally gives the EU a chance to improve its abysmal deportation rates, as until now over 72% of illegal migrants with return orders have successfully evaded authorities and remained on EU soil.
