de flag go to the original language article
This article has been translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The news agency is not responsible for the content of the translated article. The original was published by APA.

EU election: Massive shifts in the FPÖ faction ID

by AI | 10.Jun 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The right-wing faction ID could not only gain in the EU election, but is also facing major shifts within the group. Austria’s FPÖ top candidate will discuss further steps with Marine Le Pen on Wednesday.

Archive photo - FPÖ election winner Harald Vilimsky (r.) had explicitly left the door open to the German AfD on Sunday evening in the APA interview - Photo: APA/Max Slovencik

Vienna/Strasbourg – The EU election not only brought a shift to the right, but also massive changes within the euro-skeptical camp. Particularly affected by this is the Identity and Democracy (ID) faction around Austria’s election winner FPÖ. This could temporarily increase to 58 mandates (+9), but this is due to landslide successes in France and the Netherlands. In several countries, right-wing parties had to lose feathers or even flew out of the EU Parliament.

For example, the party of the French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen will have 30 instead of 18 Members of the European Parliament, more than half of all ID Mandates. A spectacular comeback was also made in the European elections by the new Dutch ruling party PVV (Party for Freedom) of Geert Wilders, which will enter the European Parliament with six mandates.

The previously dominant Italian Lega in the ID faction fell to eight mandates (previously 22), and the Czech Party of Direct Democracy (SPD, previously two mandates) failed to re-enter at all. However, the faction will gain a new national delegation with the Portuguese Chega (two mandates). While the FPÖ was able to double to six mandates, the ID parties from Belgium (Vlaams Belang, three mandates), Denmark (Danish People’s Party DF, one mandate), and Estonia (People’s Party EKRE, one mandate) remained stable.

A significant shift within the ID faction had already occurred in the final stages of the election campaign when the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) was excluded following controversial statements by its top candidate Maximilian Krah. The AfD was able to almost double to 15 Members of the European Parliament in Sunday’s election.

FPÖ election winner Harald Vilimsky had left the door explicitly open to the AfD and brought up the possibility of loose cooperation with the second euroskeptical faction EKR (European Conservatives and Reformists) in an APA interview on Sunday evening. The goal is to reach a three-digit number of Members of the European Parliament, focusing on “core points” such as repatriating EU competencies, migration, or economic policy. The neuralgic issue of Ukraine is to be excluded. He wants to forge a “big freedom-oriented reform alliance” and will meet with RN figurehead Le Pen for this purpose on Wednesday, Vilimsky said. (10.06.2024)