Portugal on board – – 2024-07-03 00:15:27

EU-Patrioten

Written by Rainer Ackermann

The chairman of the Portuguese Chega (“Enough!”) declared on Sunday that he wanted to be part of the new patriotic alliance. And the AfD also thinks the planned founding of the new right-wing faction is “great”.

Chega leader André Ventura announced this at a press conference. The right-wing party, founded just a few years ago, entered the national parliament in Lisbon for the first time in 2022, with a share of the vote of 7%. It failed in the 2019 European elections, but in 2024 Chega became the third strongest force in Portugal with almost 10% of the vote, which is enough for two mandates in the next European Parliament (EP).

“Greetings” from the Lega boss

Also on Sunday, Lega leader Matteo Salvini “welcomed” the new alliance “Patriots for Europe”. His Lega has been working for years for a patriotic alliance to create a new Europe without the left-wing forces “who are responsible for the destruction of the continent”. Brussels had once once more shown incredible arrogance when it divided up the posts “in secret”, as if the European elections had not clearly shown that the current course was leading to a dead end.

In the most recent elections, the Lega has suffered a dramatic decline compared to 2019, becoming the fifth strongest party in Italy with 9% of the vote. With 23 MEPs, it was the leading party in the ID group. However, only eight seats remain in the new EP, while Marine Le Pen’s RN has become the new strongest party in the ID group with 18 seats. On Sunday, Salvini congratulated Le Pen on her triumph in the first round of the early parliamentary elections, as he is not only secretly hoping for a broad coalition of the right.

Weidel has “full admiration” for Kickl and Orbán

For the AfD, Alice Weidel, who was just re-elected as co-chair at the party conference, told ARD: “We will not join in the short term,” but who knows what the future will bring. She expressed her “full admiration” for Herbert Kickl of the FPÖ and Viktor Orbán of Fidesz. The AfD rose to second place behind the CDU/CSU with 16% in the European elections in Germany due to the disastrous performance of the traffic light government, but with its now 15 MEPs – following the recent exclusion from the ID – it will reportedly remain non-factional.

Growth from Warsaw?

Meanwhile, Mateusz Morawiecki of the Polish PiS hinted that his party might leave the ECR. The chances of joining the new alliance are 50:50. In the background, there might be disputes over the leadership course with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as the former Polish Prime Minister suggested in several interviews. Fidesz may also be part of this dispute; Meloni is known to have personally rejected Orbán’s request to join because Fidesz allegedly brings fewer votes than the group would lose through other resignations following he joins.

Two weeks ago in Rome, Giorgia Meloni rejected Viktor Orbán because, according to her calculations, Fidesz would cost the ECR group more votes than it might bring in. Will she be right? Photo: MTI/ Zoltán Fischer

As reported, on Sunday in Vienna, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, ANO chairman and former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in his capacity as Fidesz chairman, announced the “Patriotic Manifesto” and launched a new formation of right-wing forces in the EP. In order to achieve group status, they must meet the minimum requirement of 23 MEPs from seven countries. The new initiative meets the first requirement right from the start.