The far right in the EU Parliament in turmoil. AfD tries to lead a new group with those excluded

Brussels – Not one right-wing mega-group, but three different ones. Conservative right, identity right and extreme sovereignist right. Although very often these currents mix and mingle —and many other times the nationalisms that characterize them come on a collision course with each other—three weeks before the official start of the work of the tenth legislature of the European Parliament, this is the scenario that is increasingly being defined in Brussels, with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID) groups finalizing the phase of new member admissions and those left out trying to create to a new formation so as not to risk never touching the ball in the next five years.

As reported by Der Spiegel—and confirmed by several other European media outlets—the new far-right group in the EU Parliament is expected to be called “The Sovereignists”. It would now be in an advanced stage of formation. Leading its constituent stages would be the German radical right-wing Alternative für Deutschland party, which last May 23 was expelled from the Identity and Democracy group (which is joined by the Lega and the French Rassemblement National) because of the statements of its leading candidate, Maximilian Krah, on the failure to condemn the past Nazi special forces SS (“I will never say that anyone who had an SS uniform was automatically a criminal”). Testifying to the fact that we are in the decisive days for the birth of a new parliamentary group would be an email viewed by the German newspaper, in which an AfD staff member in the EU Parliament reportedly requested the availability of a room in the Brussels headquarters for “a large constituent meeting of a new group” on Thursday (June 27) with about 100 guests.

The scenario of a new far-right group in the European Parliament had already emerged on the eve of the June 6–9 European elections, when the leader of the pro-Russian and anti-European Bulgarian nationalists of Vazrazhdane (‘Rebirth’), Kostadin Kostadinov, had made public that “we have already taken steps to create a new group in the EU Parliament and we will propose that AfD join us to take the process forward” for the birth of a “truly conservative and sovereignist” group. The results of the polls guaranteed the Bulgarian far-right three MEPs, while AfD Germans strengthened from 9 to 15. No less than 23 MEPs from at least a quarter of the member states (seven) are needed to form a new parliamentary group, so a minimum of five more members (or more) will have to be sought from as many member states, mainly from the non-attached group and the undergrowth of newly elected anti-abortion, pro-Russian, populists from lists and formations never before in the hemicycle.

It is precisely among the ranks of the most radical elements of the 43 currently unaffiliated MEPs that one must look. Among those likely to join this new far-right group are the Spanish movement Se Acabó La Fiesta (The party is over), which has appeared for the first time with three elected members in the EU Parliament to launch the fight against political privileges and partytocracy, the Greek national-conservative Patriotic Democratic Movement – Victory (NIHK) with one elected, and the Romanian irredentist and nationalist populist SOS Romania (two). The intentions of the ultranationalist French party Reconquête, which, after the expulsion of four of its five elected MEPs (ready to found a new formation, but in the meantime already part of ECR), is left with only Sarah Knafo as its representative in Brussels, are to be understood. Among the non-affiliates are the two elected members of the ultranationalist and neo-fascist Slovak Republika party, while, still among the non-attached, Polish populist ultra-right of Konfederacja (six members) at the moment is not yet convinced of the prospect of a third group. The Hungarian irredentist and pro-Russian Movement Our Homeland (one) has already confirmed that it is in the middle of talks with AfD.

Speaking of the Hungarian right, the real unknown are the intentions of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who last week closed the door on joining the ECR group due to the previous membership of five new members of the ultranationalist Romanian party Alliance for the Romanian Union (AUR). There is bad blood between the Hungarians of Fidesz and the Romanians of AUR because of their conflicting nationalisms. For AfD, sharing the group in the EU Parliament with Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party could be a hit, thanks to the 10 MEPs it would bring as a dowry, but at the moment, all is silent from Budapest, and there is no confirmation in Brussels about contacts between the two parties. The (always highly improbable) scenario of a right-wing mega-group having disappeared, attention must be paid to the behind-the-scenes manoeuvres of Orbán himself, particularly after the exit from Renew Europe of the Czech liberal-conservative populist Ano 2011 populist party of ex-premier Andrej Babiš (seven elected) and the inability of the two red-brown Slovak parties SMER-SSD (of PM Robert Fico) and HLAS-SD (of President Peter Pellegrini) to find a political home in Brussels as a result of the ousting from the social democratic family precisely because of the emergence of a government with the extreme nationalist right in Bratislava.