Le Pen’s
National Rally to take control of far-right Patriots in EU Parliament
The new
group, which also includes Viktor Orbán’s MEPs, is set to become the
third-biggest force in Parliament.
JULY 8, 2024
2:15 AM CET
BY EDDY WAX
BRUSSELS —
MEPs from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally are set to join the Patriots for
Europe on Monday, making the new far-right group the third-largest in the
European Parliament, several people involved in the discussions told POLITICO.
The 30
National Rally MEPs, who currently belong to the far-right Identity and
Democracy (ID), will become the biggest delegation inside the new Patriots for
Europe, which was formed in late June and also includes MEPs from Hungarian PM
Viktor Orbán’s party, according to two ID MEPs and an ID official.
The Patriots
clinching third place in Parliament — a position held by Emmanuel Macron’s
Renew Europe since 2019 — would be a significant blow to the centrist coalition
seeking a parliamentary majority to secure a second term for Ursula von der
Leyen as European Commission president.
Balázs
Orbán, an MP serving as political director to Viktor Orbán (the two are not
related) did not respond to questions about National Rally joining but
confirmed the scale of the Patriots’ ambitions. “We want to quickly become the
third-largest party,” he told POLITICO.
A large
Patriots grouping would give the National Rally a significant position in
Parliament despite disappointing results in the French legislative election on
Sunday.
National
Rally President and MEP Jordan Bardella hinted strongly that his party would
join the Patriots in a speech Sunday evening, saying that “at long last,
starting tomorrow our MEPs will fully play their role in a large group which
will influence the power balance in Europe, to refuse being flooded by
migrants, punitive environmentalism and the confiscation of our sovereignty.”
National
Rally President and MEP Jordan Bardella hinted strongly that his party would
join the Patriots in a speech Sunday evening. |
The formal
launch of the group is expected to take place in Brussels on Monday afternoon,
according to ID staff and members.
The insiders
said there had been plans to transfer the ID group into the Patriots sooner but
it was delayed because of the French election. “[Marine Le Pen] was forcing
everyone to postpone the group creation date,” said an ID official.
Orbán
launched the Patriots on June 30 in Vienna, alongside Andrej Babiš’ Czech ANO
party and Herbert Kickl’s Austrian FPÖ.
Since then,
a flurry of other MEPs — many of whom used to sit in the ID group — have
announced their intention to join: Six from Geert Wilders’ PVV in the
Netherlands; six from Spain’s Vox (who previously sat in the ECR); three from
Belgian party Vlaams Belang; two from the Portuguese Chega party; and Anders
Vistisen from the Danish People’s Party, who will serve as the Patriots’ chief
whip.
Eight MEPs
from Matteo Salvini’s League are also expected to join. With Le Pen’s MEP, the
group would have 79 lawmakers, slightly more than both the liberal Renew Europe
group and the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) led by
Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the Polish Law and Justice party.
ID had 49
MEPs in the outgoing Parliament, where it was the sixth-largest group.
However, the
group’s power is likely to be checked by a so-called cordon sanitaire, whereby
other groups will block it from holding key positions such as committee
chairmanships or Parliament vice presidency roles.
Rebrand or
restart?
There are
diverging opinions about whether the Patriots is effectively a rebranding of ID
or something completely fresh.
“According
to our intention it will be a new party, with [a] new structure, more
professional work and big impact,” said Balázs Orbán. He described the Patriots
as a “whole new ecosystem in Brussels for patriotic forces.”
A second ID
official agreed: “There will be a totally new group, no rebranding exercise at
all.”
But an ID
MEP said: “We’re using the old vehicle,” and “It’s basically just a bigger
group under a different name.”
The group’s
administration will largely stay the same, and the Czechs and Hungarians will
each get a vice president, that lawmaker added.
It will be
“not only Orbán’s group,” said ID President Gerolf Annemans. |
Both the MEP
and the first ID official said that one of Marine Le Pen’s MEPs would be the
president of the Patriots group.
It will be
“not only Orbán’s group,” said ID President Gerolf Annemans.
“The only
thing the Hungarians had been caring about is that they could not join an
existing group,” the ID MEP said.
Sovereignists
The only
parts of Identity and Democracy that are unlikely to join the Patriots are the
Czech SPD, which in Ivan David has just one MEP, and the far-right Estonian MEP
Jaak Madison, who this week joined ECR.
Then there’s
the Alternative for Germany party, which was excluded from the ID group just
before the election following controversial comments by its lead candidate,
Maximilian Krah, and scandals surrounding its second-placed candidate Petr
Bystron. Both were both elected.
The bulk of
the AfD MEPs — without Krah — could join another new outfit called the
Sovereignists, which could scrape together the requisite numbers needed to form
a group, although it would likely be Parliament’s smallest.
Among those
in talks to join the Sovereigntists, according to an ID official, are David;
the far-right Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík; 14 AfD MEPs; three MEPs from Bulgaria’s
Revival; a Hungarian MEP from Our Home Movement; French Reconquest MEP Sarah
Knafo; a Lithuanian MEP; and some members of the Polish Confederation party.
However, some in the AfD want to find a route into the Patriots. If that
happens, the Sovereignists likely wouldn’t get the numbers required to form a
group.
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