<p>Far-right parties are amongst the most important political actors fuelling dissensus – a fundamental conflict over liberal democracy – due to their promotion of illiberal ideas. At the same time, the degree to which they express illiberal ideas in speeches given in the European parliament varies over time, as well as between parties and their representatives. This article examines the factors underlying these variations and empirically tests variables on the micro-level (i.e. characteristics of representatives), the meso-level (i.e. characteristics of parties), and the macro-level (i.e. characteristics of the EU member states that parties and their representatives belong to). Based on a novel dataset that measures the share of illiberal speeches given in the European parliament between 1999 and 2024 by far-right representatives, and using multilevel models, this paper concludes that characteristics on the level of individual MEPs, namely membership in the LIBE committee, seniority and parliamentary activity and party characteristics, such as ideological radicalism and party size significantly explain the variation of illiberal ideas in far-right speeches in the European parliament.</p>