Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Sunday, June 30, 2024, his intention to form a new European parliamentary groupwith Austria’s far-right party and the centrist movement of former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, AFP reported.
A far-right alliance
“We are taking the initiative to launch this new platform,” said Mr. Orban during a joint statement in Vienna (Austria) alongside Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Austrian Herbert Kickl, leader of the far-right movement, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). This announcement comes as Hungary takes over rotating EU presidency on Mondayafter months of blockages and tensions with the Commission and its partners.
Fervent activist against “illegal immigration” and defender of the “traditional family”
The new alliance, named “Patriots for Europe” and consecrated by “a manifesto”, needs support from parties in four other countries in order to be recognized as a group in its own right in the European Parliament. Viktor Orban, whose Fidesz party has been among the non-registered since he left the European People’s Party (EPP, right) in 2021, hopes to convey a different vision, against military support for Ukraineagainst “illegal immigration” and for “the traditional family”.
“A historic day”
“A new era begins”he proclaimed, promising that this faction, if it sees the light of day, “will change European policy”.
“An era of freedom, sovereignty, peace, prosperity and values”, added Mr. Kickl, who, after his party’s first place in the European elections on June 9, now hopes to win the Austrian chancellery in the legislative elections scheduled for the end of September.
“Today is a historic day,” he said. His party was until now part of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, where the deputies of the National Rally (RN) are locatedwhile Mr Babis’ Ano party has decided to leave Renew Europe, which includes liberals and centrists, including French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party.
Fidesz has 11 MPs with its allies in the Christian Democratic Party KDNP, the seven-member Ano and the six-member FPÖ. In recent years, the European Union has been the scene of a meteoric rise of the extreme right within its member states.
