Car lobby meets with right-wing extremist parties to relax the ban on combustion engines

The car lobby is very interested in easing the ban on combustion engines. For this reason, they are not above working with right-wing extremist parties. The EPP group may also need help from the right-wing fringe for its plans.

Before the votes on easing the ban on combustion engines in the EU, the auto industry expanded its contacts with the extreme right. This is shown by an evaluation of the EU transparency register by the LobbyControl association, which “Spiegel” reported on.

Accordingly, in the current legislative period, i.e. since the summer of 2024, at least eleven meetings have taken place between representatives of the Stellantis group and members of the “Patriots for Europe” (PfE); The faction includes, among others, the Rassemblement National from France. The European industry association ACEA, whose president is Mercedes-Benz boss Ola Källenius, met the PfE ten times. Volkswagen comes to four meetings, BMW to two. “Lobby meetings with right-of-center parties are increasingly seen in Brussels as a normal political instrument to assert interests,” said Nina Katzemich from LobbyControl, according to a report by “Spiegel”.

When asked, ACEA said it was communicating with all relevant parliamentarians to explain the industry's position. BMW admitted that PfE MPs had asked "for information on the company's position" at the Brussels Motor Show; However, representatives of the political fringe are “explicitly not the focus” of the group’s activities. Stellantis said it was speaking “to political decision-makers from across Europe’s democratic political spectrum”. This “necessarily also applies in countries where right-wing parties are part of the government.”

At the end of 2025, the EU Commission proposed easing the ban on combustion engines in the EU that had been decided for 2035. Three committees and the plenary session of the European Parliament are due to vote on their position in the next few weeks. The largest EPP group, which also includes the CDU and CSU, wants to go beyond the Commission's proposal. But it is questionable whether it will find a majority with Social Democrats and Liberals. In recent months, the EPP has sought majorities in other policy areas, sometimes with the help of extreme right-wing MPs. EPP group leader Manfred Weber said, according to the report, that he wanted “a stable and clear agreement in the political center.”