Euro elections|Hungary’s Viktor Orbán wants to create around him the largest right-wing group in the European Parliament. That means he has to attract defectors from the ranks of Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen.
Brussels
Elections the unification of far-right forces in the European Parliament speculated below does not seem to be happening. Instead, the right wing of the parliament seems to be breaking up into several factions.
Alongside the current two groups, a third right-wing group is emerging in the parliament, which is being worked on by the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán.
Orbán’s Fidesz party has been without a group since 2021, when it had to leave the center-right EPP. After the European elections, the Prime Minister of Italy by Giorgia Meloni led by ECR did not attract Fidesz to its ranks, so Orbán is now trying to create his own power group.
At the same time, he started the race for the leadership of the far right.
Orbán’s The founders of the “Patriotic coalition” also include two other pro-Russian far-right parties, the Austrian FPÖ and the former Czech president Andrej Babishin led by ANO.
According to the rules of the European Parliament, the group must have at least 23 MEPs from seven member states. Fidesz, FPÖ and ANO already bring a sufficient number of MEPs, so it will be enough for Orbán if he manages to attract non-committed minor parties to his ranks, which are abundant on the right side of the parliament after the elections.
Orbán’s however, the goal is higher. He wants to create the largest right-wing group in the European Parliament, which would be the third or second largest group in the entire parliament.
The goal is demanding. Currently, the largest far-right group and the third largest group in the parliament is the ECR, which has 83 representatives. The group includes basic Finns from Finland. The second largest group in the parliament, the Social Democrats S&D, with 136 representatives.
In practice, Orbán would therefore have to attract to his ranks a large number of parties from other right-wing groups, i.e. ECR led by Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen from the derived ID.
The FPÖ already defected from the ID group, and Portugal’s right-wing populist Chega plans to do the same. ANO, on the other hand, defected from the liberal Renew group, where it had been the group’s oddball for years.
However, in order to succeed in his goal, Orbán would need more large national delegations in his ranks.
One such could be Polish Law and Justice, whose 20 representatives sit in the ECR. Former Prime Minister of Poland representing the party Mateusz Morawiecki said To Politicothat the party is seriously considering getting on Orbán’s bandwagon.
Morawiecki and Orbán were important allies to each other when both governments were in the Commission’s teeth for undermining the rule of law. However, the parties approach Russia in very different ways.
The group is also partly sought by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was fired from the ID group during the elections. The party has 15 MEPs. According to Der Spiegel the AfD would also be running its own project to form a group, but it is unclear whether there are even enough parties on the right wing to meet the needs of four groups.
Negotiations the composition of the groups will increase this week. According to the informal agreement of the parliamentary groups, the composition of the groups should be announced on July 4, so that the division of responsibilities can be done before the first plenary session in the middle of the month.
However, there is no binding deadline for negotiations, and groups can also be formed in the middle of the season.
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