President of Spain’s far-right party Vox, Santiago Abascal announced on Friday, 5 July, that his party would be joining the future ‘Patriots for Europe’ group that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wants to establish in the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13443/15).
“During this legislative term, we are going to join the ‘Patriots for Europe’ platform, which is trying to unite most of the patriotic and sovereignist forces”, he confirmed to the daily La Gaceta. He pointed out that his party had been trying to unite these forces for several years by organising [Europa] Viva rallies, the most recent of which took place in Madrid in May with Mr Orbán and France’s Marine Le Pen in attendance (see EUROPE 13413/3).
In a press release, Vox shared its belief that with their electoral gains in June’s European elections, the “patriotic forces” in Europe have an opportunity to “make voters’ mandate a reality in a large group that will set itself up as an alternative to the coalition of Christian Democrats, Socialists, and the far left” and that will fight to defend “the sovereignty of nations, safety in the streets and secure borders, economic and social prosperity, the family, and the true roots of Europe and the West”.
With the departure of six Vox MEPs, the conservative ECR group—co-led by Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia party and Poland’s ‘Law and Justice’ (PiS) party—will have 78 seats, that being two more than the Renew Europe group.
Mr Abascal gave assurance that his party would continue to maintain close ties of friendship with both of these parties. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)