[toyg]

I guess your definition of "right-wing" is a bit different from mine. "Centrists" in post-WW2 Europe are largely conservative: fundamentally religious, pro-business, anti-immigration. That, to me, is right-wing - respectable, not touting nazi tattoos (mostly), but still fundamentally reactionary in nature. Those blocs are usually allied with "liberal" parties, a term which in Europe carries right-wing connotations because "liberalism" is meant in the original economic sense: free-trade, unbridled capitalism, etc. Occasionally they ally even with ultra-right parties, which often include real neofascist / neonazis.

If you consider them like that, traditionally-conservative parties account for over 65% of current MEPs.

[agent327]

Predictably, someone comes along to argue that anyone who is not fully in the left must therefore be right-wing. Don't you see that the word 'centrist' indicates people who are in the center, and therefore by definition not right-wing?

Oh, and that 'mostly'? Take it down a notch. There are no actual nazis in the European Parliament.

[toyg]

Neonazi maybe not (yet), but neofascists for sure: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23248823.2023.22...

The "centrism" framing, btw, is fundamentally useless. In postwar Europe, PSE parties are left-wing and PPE parties are right-wing; other parties are fundamentally defined by their primary relationship with one of these two. The "centrism" mantra is reactionary twaddle to justify one's ideological vacuum.

[nvoeiah]

If only EPP parties were really right-wing. I say this as an actual conservative. EPP parties generally are "our position is whatever the left espoused ten years ago". Which is, basically, a very progressive position.

[jltsiren]

Traditional European parties have been converging towards the center. That's largely thanks to the EU, which is a centrist project founded on ideas such as social liberalism and pro-market policies. Social democratic parties have also become pretty right-wing by their traditional standards, largely due to Third Way politics that have been dominant since the late 90s.