The European Parliament (EP) is the legislative branch of the European Union (EU) and is made up of several political groups. Among these groups, the European People's Party (EPP) is the largest group in the European Parliament, with each member nation of the EU having at least one national party in the EPP (e.g., Germany's Christian Democratic Union, France's Les Republicains). The EPP is typically moderate, but is now evidently shifting right due to an increase of far-right and populist parties and sentiment in the EU. Moderate parties and countries in the EPP who previously denounced far-right parties are now working in collaboration with far-right parties to ensure the protection of their power and interests.