EU Parliament, French far-right nationalist Reconquête joins ECR

Brussels – After the approach by the Hungarian premier, Viktor Orbán, the European Conservatives and Reformists are widening their web of alliances ahead of the June European elections. On the sidelines of the plenary session of the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, the president of the ECR group, Nicola Procaccini, announced today (Feb. 7) the entry of a new party, the French far-right Reconquête, represented by MEP Nicolas Bay (party vice-president).

“He is young but already has long political experience at the European, national, and territorial levels; he brings to the ECR group his experience and heritage of conservative values,” was the presentation to the press of the new member. “He has worked for many years in the LIBE committee, where the issues of justice and combating illegal immigration are particularly important to us,” Procaccini added: “With Nicolas, we will be able to take a step forward in our political action.”

Beyond the entry of the single MEP (which brings to 68 the number of ECR members in the EU Parliament), the news that came today highlights in particular how the European political force led by the Italian Premier, Giorgia Meloni, is strengthening the web of relations with all the far-right and nationalist parties not yet settled in Strasbourg aspiring to become the fourth—if not the third-largest group in the next European legislature. Evidence of this is the agreement with Reconquête (although for the moment it is only the group in the parliament, not the ECR Party), but also the increasingly persistent rumours that see PM Orbán’s Hungarian Fidesz party close to joining the European party after the June elections. “Yes, we are ready and we will join,” assured the Budapest strongman on the sidelines of the meeting with Meloni the night before the February 1 extraordinary European Council. 

But these pre-election moves at the same time risk completely undermining the design of a complicated reversal of alliances in the European Parliament in the next legislature. Part of the European People’s Party (EPP)—including chairman Manfred Weber and vice-chairman Antonio Tajani—looks with interest at a possible rapprochement with the conservatives (despite frictions almost impossible to overcome, from the Hungarians of Fidesz to the Poles of Law and Justice) but the backing of a third group is needed. The Populars are pushing for Renew Europe liberals, but the Conservatives’ policy choices seem to have put a damper on this post-election design in June. “By welcoming Reconquête the only thing the ECR group has won is its definitive exclusion from political negotiations, even before the arrival of Orbán,” made clear in a post on X the neo-president of Renew Europe’s group, Valérie Hayer: “We will not allow the European far right to destroy our European values in Parliament.”