Analysis

Votes against the group’s line

Final votes · 25 Mar 2026 – 25 Sept 2026 · Marc BOTENGA

Which members voted against their group’s clear line, how often compared with the votes where the group had one, and did they vote with their national party when they did?

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Period Term 2024 2025 2026 Last 6 months

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Votes Final votes185 All roll calls1 755

Order Highest rate first By name

Showing Marc BOTENGA only. Show every member

Group Country Lead committee Topic (model-assigned) Contested votes only (largest side under 80 %)

Marc BOTENGA’s votes against the line, 23

Every vote in the selection where the member’s position differed from their group’s clear line, newest first.

**Position**: the member’s vote. **Clear line**: the position of at least two thirds of **Group** (at least 10 members voting), the group they sat in on that day.
Date	Vote	Position	Clear line	Group
17 Sept 2026	Final vote — text as a whole Impact of social media and the online environment on young people	Abstained	For	The Left
16 Sept 2026	Final vote on the draft Council decision EU-Norway Agreement on the participation of Norway in GOVSATCOM and in the Union Secure Connectivity Programme	Abstained	For	The Left
16 Sept 2026	Final vote on the draft Council decision EU-Iceland Agreement on the participation of Iceland in GOVSATCOM and in the Union Secure Connectivity Programme	Abstained	For	The Left
16 Sept 2026	Final vote Establishing the Single Market and Customs Programme for the period 2028-2034	Abstained	For	The Left
15 Sept 2026	Final vote — text as a whole Implementation of the Council Recommendation on a Bridge to Jobs – Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee	Abstained	For	The Left
15 Sept 2026	Final vote on the provisional agreement General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM): fishing in the GFCM Agreement area	Abstained	For	The Left
15 Sept 2026	Final vote Establishing the Temporary Decarbonisation Fund	Abstained	For	The Left
15 Sept 2026	Final vote Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: extension of its scope to downstream goods and anti-circumvention measures	Abstained	For	The Left
7 Jul 2026	Final vote — text as a whole A coherent tax framework for the EU’s financial sector	Against	Abstained	The Left
18 Jun 2026	Final vote — text as a whole Deteriorating situation of political prisoners in Belarus, in particular the case of Aliaksandra Pulinovich	Abstained	For	The Left
16 Jun 2026	Final vote on the draft Council decision Measures necessary for the implementation of the Protocol, annexed to the TEU and to the TFEU, on the financial consequences of the expiry of the ECSC Treaty and on the Research Fund for Coal and Steel	Against	Abstained	The Left
21 May 2026	Decision to open negotiations with the Council Final vote Periodic roadworthiness tests and technical roadside inspection (Roadworthiness package)	Against	Abstained	The Left
20 May 2026	Final vote — text as a whole Rule of law, fundamental rights and misuse of EU funds in Slovakia: the need for an EU response	Abstained	For	The Left
20 May 2026	Final vote on the draft Council decision EU-Uzbekistan Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement	Abstained	Against	The Left
19 May 2026	Final vote on the draft Council decision Research Fund for Coal and Steel: research programme and multiannual technical and financial guidelines	Against	Abstained	The Left
19 May 2026	Final vote on the provisional agreement Screening of foreign investments in the Union	Abstained	For	The Left
19 May 2026	Final vote on the provisional agreement Negative trade-related effects of global overcapacity on the Union steel market	Abstained	For	The Left
29 Apr 2026	Final vote — text as a whole Monitoring the application of European Union law in 2023, 2024 and 2025	Abstained	For	The Left
29 Apr 2026	Final vote on the draft Council decision EU-USA-Iceland-Norway Air Transport Agreement, and EU-Iceland-Norway Ancillary Agreement on the application of the Air Transport Agreement	Abstained	For	The Left
29 Apr 2026	Final vote Market stability reserve for the buildings, road transport and additional sector	Abstained	For	The Left
29 Apr 2026	Final vote on the motion for a resolution Discharge 2024: Joint Undertakings	Against	For	The Left
29 Apr 2026	Final vote — text as a whole Discharge 2024: Agencies	Against	For	The Left
29 Apr 2026	Final vote — text as a whole Discharge 2024: EU general budget – Commission	Against	For	The Left

By member, 1

Members with at least one vote where their group had a clear line. Order: by rate, for members with at least 100 clear-line votes (the rest follow by name) — not a ranking.

**Against the line**: votes against the group’s clear line ÷ **clear-line votes** (votes where the member’s group at the date had a clear line and the member voted); a count below 50. Of the votes against: **opposite** (for ↔ against), **abstained** against the line, **other** (for or against when the line was to abstain), and **with own party** — with the majority of their national party’s members in the group (at least two voting).
Member	Against the line	Clear-line votes	Opposite	Abstained	Other	With own party
Marc BOTENGA , The Left · Belgium	17.4 %	132	3	16	4	0

About these figures

What was counted, what was left out, and how.

185 votes considered (final votes matching the filters; scope).
62 of 247 decisions in the period had no final vote recorded by name (a show of hands or a count without names) and cannot be measured.
A vote counts against the group’s line when the group’s clear line — at least two thirds of its votes cast, with at least 10 members voting — was different from the member’s position; a divided group has no line to vote against (method). This is a different rule from group loyalty, which uses the majority line (loyalty).
Ordered by rate, only members with at least 100 votes where their group had a clear line are compared; fewer votes make a rate unstable, and below 50 the figure is shown as a count.
Each member is counted in the group they belonged to on the day of the vote (group at the date).
Roll calls are not a random sample: final votes on laws are recorded by name, most other roll calls because a group asked for it. A group’s line is inferred from its members’ votes; the Parliament publishes no whip.
Methods: Voted against the group’s clear line v1, Voted with the group’s majority line v1, Final votes and all roll calls v1, Group at the date of the vote v1.
Data as of 25 Sept 2026, 03:36 UTC (data stamp f37e5638cded, code 6d4005c55bde; what the stamp is).

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Sources & citation

Where the facts on this page come from, and how to cite it.

Permalink: https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/analysis/dissent?from=2026-03-25&mep=187917&scope=final&to=2026-09-25
Data source: European Parliament Open Data
Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Data version: data version f37e5638cded (25 Sept 2026) · methods: group-at-date v1, participation v1, abstention v1, loyalty v1, against-clear v1, cohesion v1, agreement v1, group-agreement v1, winning-side v1, similar-votes v1, scope v1, data-version v1 · methods
Retrieved: 25 September 2026

Cite as

EU Parl Watch Research (2026). “Votes against the group’s line — Final votes · 25 Mar 2026 – 25 Sept 2026 · Marc BOTENGA”. Analysis. EU Parl Watch Research. https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/analysis/dissent?from=2026-03-25&mep=187917&scope=final&to=2026-09-25 (retrieved 25 September 2026). Data: European Parliament Open Data, https://data.europarl.europa.eu/ (CC BY 4.0); data version f37e5638cded (25 Sept 2026) · methods: group-at-date v1, participation v1, abstention v1, loyalty v1, against-clear v1, cohesion v1, agreement v1, group-agreement v1, winning-side v1, similar-votes v1, scope v1, data-version v1.

BibTeX

@misc{epw-analysis-2026-09-25,
  author = {{EU Parl Watch Research}},
  title = {{Votes against the group’s line — Final votes · 25 Mar 2026 – 25 Sept 2026 · Marc BOTENGA}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/analysis/dissent?from=2026-03-25&mep=187917&scope=final&to=2026-09-25}},
  url = {https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/analysis/dissent?from=2026-03-25&mep=187917&scope=final&to=2026-09-25},
  urldate = {2026-09-25},
  publisher = {EU Parl Watch Research},
  note = {Analysis. Data: European Parliament Open Data (CC BY 4.0); data version f37e5638cded (25 Sept 2026) · methods: group-at-date v1, participation v1, abstention v1, loyalty v1, against-clear v1, cohesion v1, agreement v1, group-agreement v1, winning-side v1, similar-votes v1, scope v1, data-version v1}
}