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New “Patriots for Europe” faction in the EU Parliament confirmed

by AI | 09.Jul 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The new EU faction around Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party was constituted on Monday. The FPÖ from Austria co-founded the new far-right alliance “Patriots for Europe.” The strongest internal force will be the French Rassemblement National.

(Archive image) - Vilimsky described the new grouping in a statement to the German-speaking press as a "real factor on a European level." Photo: Herbert Neubauer/APA

Brussels – The new far-right faction “Patriots for Europe,” co-initiated by Austria’s FPÖ, has been constituted and will be the third-strongest force in the European Parliament with 84 MEPs. The faction leader of the new grouping will be the chairman of the French National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella. This was announced by representatives of the new faction – including Austrian MEP Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ) – on Monday in Brussels.

The new faction was announced in Vienna just over a week ago by FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Fidesz), and Czech Andrej Babis of the populist ANO party. In addition to the RN, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s Lega, the Spanish ultraconservative party Vox, the Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, the Danish People’s Party, Portugal’s Chega, and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang have now joined. Additionally, individual MEPs from the Czech Republic (Přísaha a Motoristé/Oath and Drivers), Latvia (Latvia First), and Greece (Foni Logikis), as well as a satellite party of Hungary’s Fidesz (KDNP), are included.

The right-wing populist AfD from Germany is not part of the new faction and is not expected to join for the time being, as an RN representative stated at the press conference on Monday. The AfD was excluded from the right-wing ID faction before the election following a Nazi comment by their lead candidate Maximilian Krah. At the time, the RN was in favor of the exclusion, while the FPÖ, which was also part of the ID faction, was against it. According to Vilimsky, the AfD is currently attempting to form its own new faction, so the question of membership in the “Patriots” does not currently arise.

In a statement to the German-speaking press, Vilimsky described the new grouping as a “real factor at the European level. We have grown much larger,” he said, comparing it to the Identity and Democracy (ID) faction. Other Austrian representatives in the EU Parliament hold little regard for the new faction. ÖVP delegation leader Reinhold Lopatka called them “the accomplices of warlord Putin in Europe” in a release. SPÖ delegation leader Andreas Schieder definitely does not want to cooperate with the new faction and calls on other parties to do the same. “No top positions for anti-Europeans and no cooperation in legislative work in the European Parliament,” calls Green MEP Thomas Waitz for a so-called “cordon sanitaire”. (07/09/2024)