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The leadership of the center-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament on Thursday proposed expelling Slovenian MEP Branko Grims over his contact with far-right lawmakers and for failing to follow the group’s voting line on key files.
“The group’s leadership has put forward a proposal to expel Grims from the group, with a vote set to take place on Wednesday in Strasbourg,” EPP spokesperson Pedro López de Pablo told POLITICO.
Grims is a member of Janez Janša’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), but has long been seen as an outlier within the EPP, often aligning with parties further to the right and breaking ranks with his own group. Most notably, he signed a motion of censure against the European Commission, which fellow EPP member Ursula von der Leyen leads.
The group “deplores the conduct of MEP Branko Grims and his lack of commitment towards the Group’s objectives and political priorities, which was shown by the repeated cooperation with the far right to the detriment of the Group line,” reads a draft resolution to be voted on by EPP lawmakers on Wednesday, obtained by POLITICO.
