Analysis
Votes against the group’s line
All roll calls · whole term, 16 Jul 2024 – 25 Sept 2026 · Verena MERTENS
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?
Showing Verena MERTENS only. Show every member
Verena MERTENS’s votes against the line, 47
Every vote in the selection where the member’s position differed from their group’s clear line, newest first.
| Date | Vote | Position | Clear line | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Sept 2026 | Amendment 4, adding text after paragraph 5 The recent hybrid attacks and instrumentalisation of migrants in Ceuta and the need for a coordinated response to protect EU’s external borders | Against | For | EPP |
| 16 Sept 2026 | Paragraph 45 — part 1 Gender inequalities in health, specifically as regards gender-specific conditions | Against | For | EPP |
| 16 Sept 2026 | Paragraph 18 — part 1 Gender inequalities in health, specifically as regards gender-specific conditions | Against | For | EPP |
| 16 Sept 2026 | Paragraph 3 — part 2 Gender inequalities in health, specifically as regards gender-specific conditions | Against | For | EPP |
| 16 Sept 2026 | Paragraph 3 — part 1 Gender inequalities in health, specifically as regards gender-specific conditions | Against | For | EPP |
| 9 Jul 2026 | Final vote — text as a whole The threat of war crimes, the escalating violations of international humanitarian law and the human rights situation in El-Obeid, Sudan | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 17 Jun 2026 | Amendment 2, adding text after paragraph 63 2025 Commission report on Kosovo | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 17 Jun 2026 | Amendment 3 to paragraph 73 2025 Commission report on North Macedonia | For | Against | EPP |
| 29 Apr 2026 | Amendment 40 to paragraph 160, after point vii Discharge 2024: EU general budget – Commission | Against | For | EPP |
| 28 Apr 2026 | Amendment 58 to paragraph 1 Guidelines for the 2027 budget - Section III | For | Against | EPP |
| 12 Mar 2026 | Paragraph 12 — part 4 Activities of the European Ombudsman – annual report 2024 | For | Against | EPP |
| 11 Mar 2026 | Separate vote on paragraph 53 Gender pay and pension gap in the EU: state of play, challenges and the way forward, and developing guidelines for the better evaluation and fairer remuneration of work in female-dominated sectors | Against | For | EPP |
| 10 Mar 2026 | Paragraph 45 — part 3 Housing crisis in the European Union with the aim of proposing solutions for decent, sustainable and affordable housing | Against | For | EPP |
| 21 Jan 2026 | Amendment 5 to paragraph 43 Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2025 | For | Against | EPP |
| 27 Nov 2025 | Paragraph 60 — part 2 EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024 | Against | For | EPP |
| 27 Nov 2025 | Paragraph 23 — part 2 EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024 | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 27 Nov 2025 | Paragraph 18 — part 2 EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024 | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 27 Nov 2025 | Paragraph 17 — part 3 EU strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities post-2024 | Against | For | EPP |
| 25 Nov 2025 | Final vote — text as a whole 2024 budget: assessing the implementation of the gender mainstreaming methodology in the EU budget | Against | For | EPP |
| 9 Oct 2025 | Final vote — text as a whole Second World Summit for Social Development | Against | For | EPP |
| 9 Oct 2025 | Final vote on the provisional agreement Establishment and functioning of European Works Councils - effective enforcement | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 10 Sept 2025 | Final vote — text as a whole Role of cohesion policy investment in resolving the current housing crisis | Against | For | EPP |
| 17 Jun 2025 | Amendment 186 to Article 3, after paragraph 2 Combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child sexual abuse material and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (recast) | Against | For | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 15, adding text after recital 4 Amending Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 14, adding text after recital 2 Amending Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 13, adding text after recital 2 Amending Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 12 to recital 2 Amending Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 17 to Article 2 Directive 2024/1760 (UE) Article 37, point 1 Amending Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 16 to Article 1, paragraph 1, point 1 Directive 2022/2464 (UE) Article 5, point 2 Amending Directives (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards the dates from which Member States are to apply certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 1, adding text after paragraph 1 Immediate risk of further repression by Lukashenka’s regime in Belarus - threats from the Investigative Committee | Against | For | EPP |
| 3 Apr 2025 | Amendment 11 to paragraph 2 Estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2026 – Section I – European Parliament | For | Against | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 70, adding text after recital R — part 2 Human rights and democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2024 | For | Against | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 148 to paragraph 143 Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2024 | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 146 to paragraph 125 Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2024 | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 159 to paragraph 41 Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2024 | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 147 to paragraph 4, after indent 8 Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2024 | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 145 to paragraph 4, indent 7 Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2024 | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 65, adding text after paragraph 22 Guidelines for the 2026 budget – Section III | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 2 Apr 2025 | Amendment 64 to paragraph 22 Guidelines for the 2026 budget – Section III | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 1 Apr 2025 | Amendment 34 to Article 1, paragraph 1 Macro-financial assistance to Egypt | For | Against | EPP |
| 12 Mar 2025 | Paragraph 70 — part 2 White paper on the future of European defence | Against | For | EPP |
| 12 Mar 2025 | Final vote — text as a whole European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social priorities for 2025 | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 13 Feb 2025 | Amendment 1, adding text after paragraph 4 Continuing detention and risk of the death penalty for individuals in Nigeria charged with blasphemy, notably the case of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu | Against | For | EPP |
| 13 Feb 2025 | Amendment 1 to paragraph 9 Repression by the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua, targeting human rights defenders, political opponents and religious communities in particular | Abstained | For | EPP |
| 10 Feb 2025 | Wednesday’s agenda — Request by the ESN Group Final vote Wednesday’s agenda – Request by the ESN Group | Abstained | Against | EPP |
| 23 Jan 2025 | Amendment 2, adding text after paragraph 4 Systematic repression of human rights in Iran, notably the cases of Pakhshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi, and the taking of EU citizens as hostages | For | Against | EPP |
| 28 Nov 2024 | Amendment 18 to paragraph 7 Recommendation on smoke- and aerosol-free environments | For | Against | EPP |
By member, 1
Members with at least one vote where their group had a clear line. Order: by rate, for members with at least 300 clear-line votes (the rest follow by name) — not a ranking.
| Member | Against the line | Clear-line votes | Opposite | Abstained | Other | With own party |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verena MERTENS , EPP · Germany | 1.0 % | 4 946 | 26 | 21 | 0 | 26 |
About these figures
What was counted, what was left out, and how.
- 5 928 votes considered (all roll-call votes matching the filters; scope).
- 174 of 794 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 300 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).
Sources & citation
Where the facts on this page come from, and how to cite it.
- Data source
- 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 — All roll calls · whole term, 16 Jul 2024 – 25 Sept 2026 · Verena MERTENS”. Analysis. EU Parl Watch Research. https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/analysis/dissent?mep=256974&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 — All roll calls · whole term, 16 Jul 2024 – 25 Sept 2026 · Verena MERTENS}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/analysis/dissent?mep=256974&to=2026-09-25}},
url = {https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/analysis/dissent?mep=256974&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}
}