Hungary’s Orban moves to form new EU Parliament group

VIENNA – Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban on June 30 announced the formation of a new European Union parliamentary alliance with Austria’s far-right party and the Czech centrist group of former premier Andrej Babis.

Mr Orban – whose country takes on the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1 – has long railed against the “Brussels elites”, most recently accusing Brussels of fuelling the war in Ukraine.

Hungary has vowed to use its EU presidency to push for its vision of Europe under the motto “Make Europe Great Again” – echoing the rallying cry of former US president Donald Trump, an Orban ally.

“A new era begins here, and the first, perhaps decisive moment of this new era is the creation of a new European political faction that will change European politics,” Mr Orban told reporters in Vienna at a joint press conference with Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO) leader Herbert Kickl and Czech ANO party leader Babis.

Vowing to bring a “new era”, the three men signed what they termed a patriotic manifesto, promising “peace, security and development” instead of “war, migration and stagnation”.

The new alliance, “Patriots for Europe”, will need support from parties from at least four other countries to be recognised as a group in the EU Parliament.

‘New opportunities’

It is not yet clear who would join them.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) announced at its party conference on June 30 that it was officially withdrawing from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, to which the FPO also belongs, along with France’s National Rally and Italy’s League.

The AfD’s Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) had already been excluded from the ID group in the run-up to EU elections in early June after its lead candidate Maximilian Krah was embroiled in a series of scandals, including suspicious links to Russia and China.

Mr Orban’s Fidesz party left the centre-right European People’s Party – the European Parliament’s biggest group – in 2021 amid accusations of Hungary’s democratic backsliding

“Even if the AfD cannot yet form a joint parliamentary group with Fidesz at this point, this opens up new opportunities for the AfD to work with other parties, as the party landscape of ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists) and ID as a whole is in flux,” a spokesman for AfD leader Alice Weidel told AFP.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ECR is set to be the EU Parliament’s third-largest force, following far-right gains at the European elections.

Fidesz, with its partner KDNP, now has 11 MEPs, ANO seven and the FPO six.

In a first, the FPO topped the European election in Austria and also looks set to win national elections later in 2024.

ANO announced last week it was leaving Renew Europe, which includes French President Emmanuel Macron’s party. AFP