The Hungarian Prime Minister and President of the Fidesz party, Viktor Orbán, announced his intention to form a new European parliamentary group at a press conference in Vienna on Sunday 30 June, according to the Belga and AFP press agencies.
This group will include the Austrian far-right FPÖ party and the populist ANO movement. The leaders of these parties, the Austrian Herbert Kickl and the former head of the Czech government Andrej Babiš, took part in the press conference.
“We are taking the initiative to launch this new platform”, said Mr Orbán. This new alliance, called ‘Patriots for Europe’ and enshrined in a manifesto, “should soon have new members and become the largest parliamentary group of right-wing forces in Europe”, said Mr Orbán.
In this way, the three leaders hope to make their different vision heard, against military support for Ukraine, against illegal immigration and in favour of the traditional family. “An era of freedom, sovereignty, peace, prosperity and values” is beginning, according to Mr Kickl.
This official announcement confirms the statements made by former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who said, on Thursday 27 June, that his party, Law and Justice (PiS), was planning to create a Central and Eastern European group in the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13442/12).
By forming a new group, these parties would not reinforce the two other groups classified on the sovereignist right and extreme right, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, which would therefore be abandoned by the FPÖ (see EUROPE 13426/4). The ECR group was due to form officially and elect its Chair on Wednesday 26 June. It has ultimately postponed its inaugural meeting until Wednesday 3 July (see EUROPE 13440/17).
This new group will need the support of parties from four other countries in order to be recognised as a full group in the European Parliament. The political groups have given themselves until Thursday 4 July to constitute their group, after which they will open negotiations on the allocation of posts in the parliamentary committees according to their size. The European Parliament’s parliamentary committees will hold their constituent session in the week commencing Monday 22 July (see EUROPE 13442/11). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)