BrusselsMany ways, but wrong. The European far right has gone from dreaming of uniting in one big group in the European Parliament to dreaming of splitting into parts. After Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen announced the creation of the Patriots for Europe party; the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has promoted a new political force in the European Chamber, the Europe of Sovereign States (Sovereignty Claimants). In addition, Giorgia Meloni and the Polish Law and Justice party have stayed with the European Conservatives and Reformists. So now there are three far right groups in the European Parliament.
The main party in the new group will be the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which achieved great results in the last European elections. With fifteen MEPs, the German far-right will account for more than half of the total number of seats in the monarchy. The second formation with the largest number of representatives is the Bulgarian Renaissance, which has three, followed by the Polish Union for Freedom and Independence, which will also contribute three. It also includes, among others, the French party of Eric Zemmour (Reconquest) and political forces with only one representative from member states such as Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary.
The last party that did not join was the Spanish S’ha Acabat la Festa party, which won three MEPs in the European Parliament elections. This way, Alves Pérez’s party will not join any European parliamentary group for the time being, although the time is ripe to join at any time during the legislative session. Another option for S’ha Acabat la Festa is to join CRE, Meloni’s group, which Vox left to sign with Orbán, Le Pen and Salvini.
However, the AfD managed to meet the conditions for forming a group in the European Parliament, which will have 28 representatives from six countries. In this way, the German formation avoided being left without a parliamentary group, which brings political and financial benefits to the European chamber.
It is worth noting that Italy’s Matteo Salvini (League) and Le Pen expelled the AfD from their former group, Identity and Democracy – which has disappeared – due to various scandals caused by the head of the far-right party’s list. The right formation in the European elections, Maximilian Krah. The German far-right has stressed that he would never describe anyone who worked in the National Socialist regime’s SS as a Nazi, and is also being investigated for allegedly working for Chinese and Russian disinformation media when he was a member of the European Parliament.
Indeed, this new European Parliament group, Orbán and Le Pen’s, is even more far-right than Meloni’s party, at least in Brussels’ eyes. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen opened the door to breaking the cordon sanitaire with the far right for the first time by approving the formation of the Italian prime minister’s Brothers of Italy. Her argument is that Meloni, unlike much of the far right, remains pro-Ukraine and pro-NATO, and opposed to Vladimir Putin’s regime. But it finally seems that von der Leyen will choose to rely on the Greens, rather than Meloni, to secure another term on the throne of Brussels.
Near Russia
Both the Patriots for Europe and Sovereignty are groups with state parties close to the Kremlin. Orbán is the EU leader who has always blocked and delayed aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, and leaders like Le Pen or Abascal, especially before the war, have claimed good relations with Putin. Likewise, many AfD members could have worked or spied for the Kremlin and are openly pro-Russian.
Currently, the Soberanists are the third far-right European parliamentary group in terms of the number of MEPs, with around thirty. In first place – after the signing of Vox – is the party promoted by Orbán, the Patriots for Europe, with 84 seats, and the party led by Meloni (CRE) has a total of 78 seats. Overall, in the European Chamber, political power is expected to decline. It is also the group created by the Alternative for Germany party that has the fewest seats.
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