Brussels – The upheavals within the European right continue. Spain’s far-right party, Vox, announced today (July 5) that it is joining Viktor Orbán’s new creature — Patriots for Europe — in the process of being formed as a new political group in the European Parliament. The six Vox MEPs are thus abandoning “friend and ally” Giorgia Meloni and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, of which the Italian Premier is President.
The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, called the platform launched by Orbán, the leader of the Czech populists of ANO 2011, Andrej Babiš, and the President of the Austrian Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, “a historic opportunity” that “will bring together a large majority of parties that are leading the alternative to Populars, Socialists, and the far left in Brussels.” Abascal wanted to thank and express “strong friendship” to the ECR, emphasizing, “in a special way, his friendship towards Giorgia Meloni and Fratelli d’Italia.”
The Hungarian Premier’s spokesman, Balázs Orbán, is currently in Madrid to define with Abascal the entry of Vox into the newly formed sovereignist alliance. The backstabbing of his friend Meloni, who from a rally of the Spanish extremist party made a speech that became her most famous – “I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am a Christian” – is costing European conservatives dearly. With the exit of the six Vox MEPs, the group led by the delegations of Fratelli d’Italia and the Poles of Law and Justice (PiS) drops from 84 seats to 78. For the time being, It remains the third largest group in the European Parliament, with two more seats than Renew’s Liberals. However, others may follow Vox’s path, especially after the souring of relations between Fdi and PiS, with a possible split averted at the group’s last constituent meeting.
The sovereignist galaxy alliance has designated July 8 as the day it will form its political group in the European Parliament. No less than 23 MEPs from at least a quarter of the member states (7) are needed to establish a new parliamentary group: with the Spanish delegation, there are already 32, but from five EU countries. The 11 Hungarians from Fidesz, the 7 from ANO, and the 6 Austrian MEPs from Fpö already joined the 2 Portuguese from Chega. Orbán has already announced that there will also be an Italian party in the Patriots, and the League has relaunched by expressing strong interest in the Hungarian Premier’s project.
If the 8 League MEPs were to say goodbye to their home group, Identity and Democracy, they would be just short of meeting the requirements for a new group: one last delegation from another capital. The most courted is Marine Le Pen, who can offer an army of 30 elected members of the National Rally. If she, too, were to join the Patriots for Europe, her decision could spell the end of Identity and Democracy, and expose the creation of the new sovereignist group as a mere rebranding – and enlargement – operation of the ID group.
