Professionalization Through Staff: Parliamentary Assistants and the Normalization of the Radical Right in the European Parliament

The electoral rise of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) has generated substantial scholarship on their normalization, particularly in parliamentary contexts (Valentim, 2021; McDonnell & Werner, 2019; Zulianello and Larsen, 2021). This question is crucial at the EU level, where PRRPs are well established in the European Parliament (EP) and have increasingly shaped parliamentary activity and coalition-building dynamics. While existing research examines normalization through voting patterns, legislative behavior, and alliance formation (Brack and Marié, 2024), parliamentary staffing practices remain unexplored as an indicator of professionalization. The literature on parliamentary staff, both at national and EU levels, remains scarce (Brandsma & Otjes, 2024; Laloux and Laloux 2024; Pegan, 2017), despite their crucial role in supporting parliamentarians across legislative activities. Delaine (2025) examines internal organization and socialization processes within the French RN delegation, revealing how this group functions despite deliberately vague management structures. Complementing this focus on one party, this paper examines individual MEP staffing strategies to analyze the professionalization of the far right. It seeks to compare whether the number and allocation of staff (accredited parliamentary assistants in Brussels/Strasbourg versus local assistants in constituencies) that radical right MEPs employ resembles that of mainstream EU politicians). This analysis draws on an original dataset of MEPs' parliamentary staff during the 8th, 9th, and 10th EP terms (2014-2025). By comparing the evolution of the staff over time and compare how PRRPs and other party groups distribute resources between Brussels-based and constituency-based support, this study addresses whether radical right MEPs' increasing parliamentary engagement reflects genuine professionalization or strategic adaptation, contributing to broader debates on the normalization of the far right at the supranational level.