The extremist forces closest to Russia, those of the Hungarian Viktor Orbán, the French Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini’s League, have joined forces to become the third force in a very fragmented European Parliament. This Monday, Identity and Democracy (ID), one of the far-right families in the European Parliament, died and another was born, Patriots for Europe. The new formation, which draws mainly from the groups that made up ID, is made up of 84 MEPs from 12 countries from parties such as the Spanish Vox or the Dutch Geert Wilders. This union outnumbers the liberals of Renew, who were in that position until their fall in the European elections in June, and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which includes Brothers of Italy, the party with neo-fascist roots led by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who aspired to the podium of the third parliamentary force.
Patriots for Europe, a project launched a week ago by the national-populist Orbán, leader of Fidesz, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), and the Alliance of Dissatisfied Citizens of former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, brings together a good number of Eurosceptic and even Europhobic forces. With these positions, they seek to influence the policies of the European Parliament and try to block the progress of the European integration project. Its official constitution this Monday in Brussels occurs amid great concern in European capitals about the role of Orbán and Hungary as the rotating presidency of the EU Council, and about the Hungarian leader’s trips to Moscow, to meet with Vladimir Putin, and to China, to see Xi Jinping, on a supposed peace mission in Ukraine for which he has no European mandate.
Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) – the largest force within the group, with 30 MEPs after the 9-J European elections that led to the call for early elections in France -, aware of the Patriots’ family’s affinity with Russia and Vladimir Putin, has waited to join the group until after the French elections this Sunday, in which the ultra forces already saw Le Pen’s successor, the MEP Jordan Bardella, sitting in the prime minister’s chair. However, it has ended up being only the third political force in the French Assembly, thanks to the cordon sanitaire from the left to a significant part of the traditional centre-right.
“The 30 MEPs of the French National Rally will play their full part in a large group that will influence the balance of power in Europe, to reject the flood of immigrants, punitive environmentalism and the confiscation of our sovereignty,” Bardella said on Sunday evening, visibly upset by the French election result and by what he called the “unnatural” alliances of the centre and the left to form a dam against his anti-immigration, xenophobic and Europhobic party, which could try to replicate itself in the European Parliament.
Despite being absent from Monday’s constituent meeting, Bardella has been elected president of the group. There will be six other vice-presidents, one of them being Hermann Tersch, a MEP from Vox. However, the post of first vice-president goes to Hungarian Kinga Gál, from Fidesz, the second largest party by number of seats.
The question, say European parliamentary sources, is how much real influence Patriots will have, whether the various ultra-nationalist parties will be able to work together or whether they will implode at some point during the legislature due to their differences and the fact that each one is pulling in its own direction. Its predecessor, ID, which included Alternative for Germany, expelled from the European Parliament for the scandal over the historical memory of Nazism by its leader, and a group that never included Orbán’s Fidesz (which nevertheless belonged to the European People’s Party), has always been viewed with great suspicion by the other families in the European Parliament, even by the other Eurosceptic group ECR.
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In fact, the tradition in the European Parliament has been to raise a cordon sanitaire around ID, which in 2014 called itself Europe of Nations and Freedom, when it comes to distributing posts and its MEPs are excluded. That does not happen with the other right-wing bloc, which still includes the Polish ultra-conservatives of Law and Justice (PiS) and Giorgia Meloni’s party, which, although it is losing strength due to the flight of several of its members (like Vox, with six MEPs), can benefit from its separation from even more extreme positions.
Recycle the now toxic ID
The staging of the steps that led to the formation of Patriots for Europe on Monday lasted eight days. First, Orbán launched the idea together with Austrian ultras and the Czechs of former Prime Minister Andrej Babis, an organisation that until recently was part of the liberals of Renew and has been drifting illiberal for several years. Then other formations joined (Vox did so on Friday). Until this weekend it became clear that the new group would be a 3.0 version of ID because practically all the parties were in it until now, including Marine Le Pen’s 30 French MEPs, who now form the largest delegation. Identity and Democracy, however, seemed to have become “toxic” for some after the AfD scandal, says a European source. Statements by its main candidate for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, whitewashing the Nazi SS, led to the expulsion of this German party from the European group.
Patriotas easily meets the conditions required to be a parliamentary group in the European Parliament (at least 23 MEPs from at least seven countries). According to the figures from this Monday (the data can be changed throughout the legislature, although they must always meet the required conditions) they total 84 parliamentarians from 12 countries.
In terms of delegations, the French are the largest. However, Orbán’s Hungarians have achieved a large share of prominence, both in the creation process and due to their size. With 11 parliamentarians, they are the second largest in the group.
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