{"id":376791,"date":"2024-07-09T19:43:04","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T17:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/09\/afd-gruppo-estrema-destra-parlamento-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-07-15T11:58:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T09:58:08","slug":"its-almost-a-done-deal-for-europe-of-sovereign-nations-the-third-far-right-group-in-the-eu-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/09\/its-almost-a-done-deal-for-europe-of-sovereign-nations-the-third-far-right-group-in-the-eu-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s almost a done deal for ‘Europe of Sovereign Nations,’ the third far-right group in the EU Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0The European Parliament is preparing for the third sovereignist and nationalist far-right group just two days after the formation of Patriots for Europe. It will be called ‘Europe of Sovereign Nations’ and will be led by the radical right-wing Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland (AfD) party<\/strong>, with its establishment scheduled for tomorrow (July 10) in Brussels, sources inside the German party told Eunews<\/em> after the\u00a0statement\u00a0<\/a>made by Tomio Okamura<\/strong>,<\/span> leader of the Euroskeptic, anti-Islamic, anti-immigration Czech populist party Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD)<\/strong> and co-founder of the group ready to see the light of day in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

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\"Alice<\/a>
The co-leader of Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland, Alice Weidel (credits: Michele Tantussi \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At tomorrow’s meeting – the time and place of which are still\u00a0not\u00a0known – the other members of Europe of Sovereign Nations will be announced, with whom for weeks <\/a>AfD has been weaving dense relations not to remain in the irrelevance of the non-aligned, having been\u00a0expelled from the ID group<\/a> in May. Forming a new parliamentary group requires at least\u00a023 members from at least a quarter of the member states (7).<\/strong>\u00a0So AfD (strengthened in the European elections with 15 elected members) needs eight\u00a0more members from six\u00a0countries. One is the Czech Ivan David<\/strong> of SPD, a former member of Identity and Democracy who was excluded from the Patriots for Europe group<\/a>\u00a0when, yesterday (July 8), ID merged into the new sovereignist formation due to opposition from the Czech party ANO 2011 of former PM Andrej Babi\u0161<\/strong>, one of the three founders<\/a> of the political experiment with Hungarian PM, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>. Also most likely to join will be the three\u00a0Bulgarians of Vazrazhdane<\/strong> (‘Rebirth’), among the first on the eve of the June 6-9 European elections<\/a>\u00a0to push for a group with the Germans of AfD.<\/p>\n

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\"Sarah<\/a>
From left:\u00a0Reconqu\u00eate MEP, Sarah Knafo, and the founder of the Party, \u00c9ric Zemmour (credits: Valery Hache \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Four more MEPs from four countries are needed to reach at least 23 members. Among the candidates\u00a0to join this new far-right group are the three\u00a0Spaniards of Se Acab\u00f3 La Fiesta <\/strong>(‘The Party is Over’), the Greek national-conservative Democratic Patriotic Movement – Victory <\/b>(1 elected), the two\u00a0Romanian irredentists and nationalist populists of S.O.S. Romania<\/b>, the two\u00a0Slovak neo-fascists of\u00a0Republika<\/strong>, the six\u00a0Polish ultra-nationalists of Konfederacja,\u00a0<\/strong>and the Hungarian Our Fatherland Movement\u00a0<\/strong>(1 elected). However, the Germans of\u00a0AfD tried today to tighten contacts in Paris with Sarah Knafo<\/strong>, the only MEP left representing the French ultranationalist right-wing Reconqu\u00eate<\/strong> in Brussels after the expulsion<\/a> of four of the five elected MEPs (ready to form a new party, but in the meantime already part of the ECR<\/a>). If all these national forces joined Europe of Sovereign Nations, the new far-right group in the European Parliament\u00a0would have 35 members from 10 member countries<\/strong> and be the smallest behind the Left (46).<\/p>\n

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\"Tomio<\/a>
The leader of the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, Tomio Okamura (credits: Andreas Solaro \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

In a European right-wing camp that is increasingly divided and quarrelsome<\/a>, the emergence of the third group that is more to the right than the European People’s Party means a continual scramble between conservatives, patriots, and sovereignists<\/strong>, including – and not only – in terms of terminology to qualify the different far-right formations. Opening the dances were the Patriots for Europe (PfE), who, on the very day of their establishment, snatched the bottom spot\u00a0on the podium of the largest groups in the EU Parliament from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR),\u00a0with 84 and 78 members<\/strong>, respectively<\/strong>, behind the European People’s Party (188) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (136). Compared with\u00a0the Patriots for Europe group – whose first vice-chair, Hungary’s Kinga G\u00e1l <\/strong>(Fidesz), yesterday claimed<\/a> to want to “provide a European alternative, not an alternative to Europe” -according to Czech Okamura’s words, Europe of Sovereign Nations will be “against the Green Deal, against migration, against the Islamization of Europe. We want the powers of Brussels to return to the national level,”<\/strong> totally abandoning the idea that it is possible to reform the European Union from within.<\/p>\n