The ‘Europe of Sovereign Nations’ (ESN), a new far-right group formed on Wednesday 10 July in the European Parliament, announced its founders in a press release.
Founded around the German AfD party, which was expelled from the now-defunct Identity and Democracy (ID) group at the end of May (see EUROPE 13415/2), this new group includes 25 MEPs from eight EU countries. In addition to the AfD (14 MEPs), it includes the Bulgarian Wasraschdane (3 MEPs), the French Reconquête (1 MEP), the Polish Confederation Liberty and independence (3 MEPs), the Slovak ‘Republika’ (1 MEP), the Lithuanian ‘People and Justice Union’ (1 MEP) and the Czech ‘Freedom and Direct Democracy' (SPD) (1 MEP) as well as ‘Our Hungary’ (1 MEP).
The Co-Presidents will be Germany’s René Aust and Poland’s Stanisław Tyszka. France’s Sarah Knafo, the Czech Republic’s Milan Uhrik and Bulgaria’s Stanislav Stoyanov were elected Vice Presidents.
“After intensive consultations, we have founded the ‘Europe of Sovereign Nations’ group today. We have come together because we share the goal of having a significant impact on Europe’s political future through decisive action and strategic planning. This can only succeed collectively, as European history shows. Influence has always been wielded by those who had the courage to organise and act strategically”, said the group.
ENS will make its creation official next week in Strasbourg, at the European Parliament’s constituent plenary session. It will then become the third political force on the far right of the European Parliament, after the radical right group ECR and the ‘Patriots for Europe’ group that was launched on 8 July (see EUROPE 13448/1). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)