We investigate the changing “ideal points” of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the dimensionality of politics in the chamber. We apply and compare the results from two scaling method to all recorded (roll-call) votes between 1979 and 2024 in the European Parliament: a standard approach (D-NOMINATE), and a new IRT-M model. We focus on the stability of MEPs preferences and the main dimensions of conflict in presence of major shocks, such as EU enlargements, the rise of populist parties, and major crises that affected European Union (sovereign debt, migration, COVID, Ukraine war). We explore the extent to which the main dimension of politics, the classic left-right, has been replaced by a pro-/anti-globalization dimension. Finally, we interpret the substantive content of the observed dimensions using exogenous measures of national party and MEPs’ policy positions.