When the real patriots decide to act, European bureaucrats tremble. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán believes this after his partnership with former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and the leader of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl. Today, the three announced the establishment of a new group in the European Parliament in Vienna.
“The political change in Europe has begun! Today, we launched a new political group with @AndrejBabis and Herbert Kickl,” the authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister proudly announced in a post on X.
It was so easy to change Europe!
“European people want three things: #peace, order and development. All they get from the current Brussels elite is #war, #migration and stagnation. In this situation, it is our duty to enforce the will of the voters. Three political parties joined forces today: the strongest Austrian party, the strongest Czech party and the strongest Hungarian party. We aim to become the strongest right-wing group in European politics. #PatriotsforEurope,” explained Orbán.
“Today, we founded a new faction in the European Parliament, Patriots for Europe. We will change European politics so that it once again serves nations and our people. We will prefer national sovereignty to federalism, liberty to orders, and peace to war,” Andrej Babiš modestly posted on his account on X.
On Friday, June 22, the former Czech Prime Minister announced that his party, ANO, abandoned the liberal Renew Group in the European Parliament to form a new one with political forces that share its anti-immigration and anti-Grean policies views.
Orbán also searched for a group after his party, Fidesz, left the EPP in 2021. The Hungarian politician tried to join the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, but his relations with Vladimir Putin and his refusal to assist Ukraine caused several ECR members to reject the option.
Although the other far-right groups promote their positions in political and ideological terms, Orbán’s pompous way would undoubtedly give a cheerful sense of the new group’s presence in the European Parliament.
But is it so?
Fidesz won 11 seats in June’s European elections – 2 less than in 2019.
The ANO party of Babiš won 7 seats, one more than in 2019.
The third partner, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), increased its seats from 3 to 6.
To form a new political group in the European Parliament, 23 MEPs from at least seven EU countries are required. The three fulfil the first condition, as they have together 24 MEPs. They also have common and compact political views. Thus, the only problem is to bring MEPs from another four countries.
What Identity and Democracy will do?
European Interest supported that Orbán and his party fit better with Marine Le Pen and her National Rally. Both share the arsenal of far-right rhetoric, although the French politician is not as rude as the Fidesz boss.
Now, the decision of the far-right Austrian party, a leading member of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, to join the new ambitious plan of Orbán and Babiš allows speculations concerning the limits of such a venture.
What does FPÖ’s defection from the ID to the new group mean? The ID group is now weaker. The leaders of Identity and Democracy, the most radical group of the far-right in the European Parliament, met in Brussels on June 12 to discuss their strategy ahead of the next European Parliament. They participated in eight parties. The ninth, the Estonian EKRE, announced that it had to consider other options before deciding. Now, if the Austrian party defected ID, the group of Le Pen has only seven members and 52 MEPs.
A second question is how many far-right groups can resist in the European Parliament, given that, except for the ECR, the others will be weak in numbers. The ID is one of them.
The ECR has 83 members, but not all are far-right parties. The group also has two Prime Ministers, Giorgia Meloni in Italy and Petr Fiala in the Czech Republic. Moreover, we cannot exclude mobility from ECR towards other groups.
The German AfD and Bulgarian Revival announced they sought to form another group, gathering more extremist parties.
Now, the Patriots for Europe will probably resolve the problems of Fidesz, ANO, and eventually SMER in Slovakia, but their group will also be weak. The Patriots currently have one Prime Minister, Orbán, who is extremely isolated in the EU.
Thus, we may expect further developments in the far-right camp.
Marine Le Pen is probably expecting the results of the French snap elections on July 7 to decide on ID’s future. Thus, we cannot exclude a merge of the two groups, ID and Patriots, in the next few weeks.
Even so, the new camp cannot threaten procedures in the European Parliament. Its members usually vote together during crucial voting. The new group may make noise, but everything regarding voteswill remain the same.
