The European parliament has always been a strange hybrid creature where politics are a blend of fierce ideological differences compounded by equally deeply defended national interests. It is vast, multi-lingual and confusing. No wonder a cruel wit once nicknamed it the “mother-in-law of all parliaments”: it is the assembly that people love to mock. Even if it matters – and it does – most outsiders cannot fathom why, let alone how, it works.

There is a clear division between the big blocs of left and right, with a liberal group holding the centre ground, and a plethora of narrower interest groups, from the Greens, socialists and communists on the left, to nationalists and eurosceptics on the right. The centre-right is the dominant group, followed by the centre-left. But there is no single “party in power”, no European government, no official opposition.