At its political assembly in Vienna at the end of June, Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP) adopted a resolution that treats Muslim civic engagement as inherently suspect and collective religious practice as a threat.

It extends the approach of Germany’s Christian Democrats to “political Islam” and echoes French conspiracy theories about “Islamist entryism”. The resolution attracted scant media attention, but the effects of this discourse have already been felt by anti-racist organisations in Brussels and beyond.

The resolution, titled “Interference of Political Islam in European Democratic Processes”, is a significant gesture from the party’s presidency itself, rather than from an individual member party, national delegation or affiliated group, which gives it particular institutional weight: it reflects the leadership’s collective priorities rather than a single member’s initiative.