Press
Orbán’s “Patriots for Europe” relegate Meloni’s group to third place in the EU Parliament. A French election loser is to become group leader.
Brussels – Right-wing extremists of Europe, unite: This is the motto under which the new group in the EUParliament, whose spiritual fathers are the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (Fidesz), the former Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPÖ) and the former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO). On 30 June they founded a new right-wing alliance under the name “Patriots for Europe”, which is now to become a parliamentary group. It will probably be officially confirmed next week at the next plenary session in Strasbourg.
According to its own information, the alliance will bring together 84 members from 12 countries. This not only exceeds the threshold of at least 23 members from at least 7 countries, which is a prerequisite for constituting a group, but also displaces the equally right-wing group of the “European Conservatives and Reformists” (ECR), dominated by the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d’Italia), as the third strongest force in the EU Parliament behind the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats.
“Patriots for Europe”: Orbán’s new right-wing EU faction – without the AfD
SPD MEP René Repasi also sees the new alliance as a weakening of Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. After the MEPs from Orbán’s Fidesz party left the European People’s Party (EPP) group in 2021 and became non-attached, the Italian right-wing populist in particular vied for her favor. Instead of winning her over for their ECR group, the Fidesz people are now challenging Meloni’s allies with their new group and claiming leadership of the far-right camp in Europe.
However, a currently non-affiliated group of right-wing populists will not join the ranks of the new faction: The AfD remains outside. She was excluded from the “Identity and Democracy” group shortly before the European elections, not least because of the scandal surrounding her EU top candidate Maximilian Krah, from which many members are now switching to the “Patriots for Europe”. AfD leader Alice Weidel said on Tuesday that joining her party was not an option, even if they were “friends” and had “incredible overlap in terms of content”.
Competition for Meloni: “Patriots for Europe” displace their ECR group
The parties of the leading figures Orbán, Kickl and Babiš are so strong in their respective countries that they make their leaders influential voices of the European right. Fidesz has ruled Hungary continuously since 2010. The FPÖ has been an established political force in Austria for decades and, thanks to its anti-immigration stance, has a good chance of coming first in the National Council elections in the autumn. The ANO of former Prime Minister and billionaire Babiš would be by far the strongest force if parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic today.
Meloni’s Italian coalition partners from the nationalist Lega and the right-wing nationalist Rassemblement National (RN) from France are also members of the new faction. RN chairman Jordan Bardella is to become the faction leader. This is reported by the news agency AFP citing parliamentary circles in Brussels, where the first meeting of representatives of the “Patriots for Europe” took place on Monday. Perhaps this is some kind of consolation for the 28-year-old Frenchman, who could have already seen himself at the head of a new French government before the left and Macronists snatched the national election victory from the RN at the last minute.
Rejection of migration and no more support for Ukraine
Other candidates include Vox from Spain, the party of Dutch election winner Geert Wilders, the right-wing populist Danish People’s Party and Belgium’s radical right-wing Vlaams Belang. The right-wing populist party Chega (Enough) from Portugal, founded in 2019, has also expressed its interest.
A “Patriotic Manifesto” of the alliance contains the well-known positions of right-wing, right-wing populist and right-wing extremist parties: rejection of migration and the “Green Deal”, no support for Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia, and dismantling of integration in the EU in order to strengthen the sovereignty of nation states.
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