European Parliament – Patriots immediately third strongest group – 2024-07-11 07:35:43

European Parliament

Written by Rainer Ackermann

With the Italian Lega and the French RN of Marine Le Pen, the new group of “Patriots for Europe” already had nine members, but there were many more when the group was officially formed on Monday. This makes it clear: Fidesz has found a new home in the European Parliament.

The RN deliberately waited for the outcome of the parliamentary elections in France before party leader Jordan Bardella announced the good news for the new formation on Monday: With 30 MEPs, the RN is strengthening the “Patriots for Europe” alliance launched by Fidesz, FPÖ and ANO. Shortly before, Lega leader Matteo Salvini had announced that his party, which is part of the government in Rome as a member of a right-wing coalition, would be joining. The Italian wrote of a “large group of patriots who want to influence the future of Europe”.

ID virtually renamed

This makes it clear that the previous Identity and Democracy (ID) group, which included RN, FPÖ and Lega in the last legislative period, has essentially renamed itself. Fidesz, which remained without a parliamentary group following leaving the EPP, is undoubtedly the biggest winner of this repositioning in the right-wing camp. As is well known, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is also Fidesz party leader, had previously pushed for a broad alliance of the right, including the ECR under Giorgia Meloni.

Parties from a dozen states

The founding meeting of the Patriots for Europe group on Monday followingnoon in Brussels ultimately brought together 84 MEPs from 14 parties from twelve EU member states under the new umbrella. RN leader Jordan Bardella was elected chairman, and Fidesz European politician Gál Kinga became his first deputy chairman. Behind the dominant French RN with 30 MPs, the Hungarian government parties Fidesz-KDNP form the second strongest force in the new alliance with 11 (10+1) mandates, followed by the Italian Lega (8).

In the broad “middle field” are the two Fidesz allies at the Patriots’ baptism at the end of June, the ANO from the Czech Republic (7 seats) and the FPÖ (6) from Austria. The Spanish Vox and the Dutch PVV also each contribute 6 seats, while six other parties from Belgium, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Greece, Denmark and Latvia together contribute ten seats.