Individual Militant Democracy in EU Institutions

The literature on whether a militant democracy framework can be deployed to justify various kinds of EU sanctions against Member States due to their democratic backsliding has so far focused on EU institutions and Member States as (potential) agents of militant democratic sanctions (Feisel 2022; Müller 2014; Theuns 2022; 2024). Yet, militant democratic measures, in some circumstances, may be imposed by individual agents on individuals who pose a threat to democracy (Müller 2019). At the same time, new work in political ethics explores the duties and opportunities of individual political actors, such as Members of the European Parliament, to respond to backsliding in their collegial relations (Mráz 2025). In this article, we explore whether a militant democratic framework can justify enriching the EU’s repertoire against democratic backsliding through such individual responses. We argue that, in principle, individual political actors such as MEPs and COREPER representatives can be justified in applying militant measures against colleagues who hold mandates or offices in a shared decision-making or supportive body of the EU and are elected in or delegated by undemocratic Member States. Such measures, while they would need to pass a high bar of normative justification, require no institutional reform to be implemented.