A sovereignist wave could hit Europe in the coming days, the project of a large group in the European Parliament that brings together the main forces of the sovereignist right could be at a turning point after yesterday’s statements by Viktor Orbán and Matteo Salvini.
On the day in which Europe’s eyes are focused on the French elections, the Hungarian prime minister, together with the former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis and Herbert Kickl, leader of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOE), have announced a new political alliance. The three leaders met in Vienna the day before the start of Hungary’s six-month EU presidency which opens today.
“We take responsibility for launching this new platform and this new current. I want to make it clear that this is our goal,” Orbán said on the sidelines of the event, adding on his X profile: “The political change in Europe has begun. Europeans 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 have joined forces today: the strongest Austrian party, the strongest Czech party and the strongest Hungarian party. Our goal is to become the strongest right-wing group in European politics.”
The alliance between the three parties alone can count on twenty-three parliamentarians, a number that would be sufficient to create a new group but, according to European regulations, at least seven member states must be represented. Until a few days ago there was talk of the hypothesis of a new group to join the conservatives of Ecr and the sovereignists of Identity and Democracy led by Orbàn also with the Slovaks of Smer of Prime Minister Robert Fico and other smaller forces such as Reconquete in France and the Spaniards from Salf but yesterday changed the cards on the table. First of all the presence of the FPO which was part of ID, secondly the words of Matteo Salvini who opened the creation of a new large group: «for years the League has been working to involve the greatest number of parties that aim to build a Different EU, without the leftists who have destroyed Europe in recent years and are unavailable to support Ursula Von der Leyen. We want to widen as much as possible the perimeter of a strong, patriotic, cohesive and averse to mess-ups group. We evaluate very favorably the words of other leaders who today said they were available.”
League sources confirm that a dialogue is underway with Viktor Orbán precisely in the direction of a single group that brings together European sovereignists but Marine Le Pen, leader of the main party of the group, must also express her opinion on a possible dissolution of Identity and Democracy, who in these hours she is busy on other fronts.
The birth of a group bringing together the main sovereignist parties would have the consequence of a further rightward imbalance in the European balance, yet its formation must not be taken for granted because there remain issues to be resolved between the political forces that should be part of it.
