Two weeks after the elections, the Belgian centrist MPs from the Les Engagés party announced on Thursday 20 June that they were officially joining the European Democrat Party (PDE), whose elected members of the European Parliament sit in the Renew Europe group.
The Belgian party won 5.2% of the vote in the elections and will therefore be represented by an MP, Yvan Verougstraete, a former company director. Originally members of the European People's Party (EPP), Les Engagés expressed their wish to reconsider their membership several times during the election campaign.
Maxime Prévot, chairman of the Belgian party, explains that this change is linked to the ideological reorientation of the party, which now sees Renew Europe and the PDE as groups “much more in line with our political values”.
“We have a values problem with certain groups that have recently joined the EPP”, he said, referring in particular to the Dutch farmers' party, BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB).
Renew Europe claims 80 members, compared with 83 for the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), according to the latest count.
When questioned on this point, Sandro Gozi, PDE Spitzenkandidat, sidestepped the question by stating that Renew Europe would continue to have an influence thanks to its rallying force and its political priorities. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)