Orban launches new group in Brussels. Salvini’s idea: “Let’s unite all the right-wing parties”

The initial outlines, for now, are those of the Austro-Hungarian past, but the declared goal is to create the largest far-right group in the European Parliament. The name is already there, they are “Patriots for Europe”, but now the great search has begun to find, within a few days, the largest number of adherents: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – a supporter of the most famous, with the Fidesz party, a united front of the far-right in the EU – unveiled the plan yesterday from Vienna, together with the other pillars of the alliance: the leader of the Austrian far-right FPÖ party, former interior minister Herbert Kickl, the head of the populist formation ANO 2011 and former prime minister Andrej Babiš. “The strongest parties in Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary are coming together to become the strongest right-wing group in EU politics,” Orbán wrote in his tenth book. “Europeans want three things: peace, order and development. But from the elite in Brussels they receive war, immigration and recession.” On the identity level, the three are against supporting Ukraine and close to Russia, but they also oppose the Green Deal, the EU’s climate plan, and want tough action against migrants.

The Freedom Party, which opinion polls show as the declared winner of the legislative elections held on September 29 in Austria, is still part of the sovereign group of Identity and Democracy today, together with the supporters of the National Rally and the League (58 elected). ; On the other hand, Fidesz and ANO find themselves without a home: the Hungarians ended up among the non-member states (a kind of irrelevance for those who do not have a political family in the EU) in 2021, after falling out with the People’s Party of which they belong. Environmental planning policy; on the other hand, the Czechs finalized their divorce from the liberals of the Renew Europe Party just ten days ago. For the new coalition, the Freedom Party brings six seats, Orbán ten and Babiš seven: a number that is not random. In fact, the MEPs represent the minimum to create a parliamentary group in Strasbourg, but a second criterion must be respected, which is not yet within the reach of the “national” international: namely, that these elected must come from at least seven different countries. In short, four more countries are needed to be able to formalize the creation of what could be considered a candidate to become the third right-wing group in the European Chamber: “From now on, we welcome all forces that want to join our reform efforts.” Kickl said, convinced that “there will be more accessions than can be imagined at the moment.” Identity leads directly, in particular, to the party of Smir Rossobruni, the party of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico that was ousted by the Socialists and ended up among the non-members, but they said they were interested in the idea of ​​creating a “large group to mobilize European patriots.” The League, in conjunction with the Vienna Declaration: “For years we have been working to involve as many parties as possible that aim to build a different European Union, without the leftists who have destroyed Europe in recent years and are not available to support Ursula von der Leyen – commented Matteo Salvini –. We want to expand as much as possible a strong, patriotic and cohesive group against chaos.”

the others
In recent days, it has been said that even Poland’s PiS, which sits in the European Parliament with Italy’s brothers, will leave and become closer to Orbán; The ECR administration is meeting, starting today, in Broccoli, Sicily, in an attempt to overcome friction. There is time until Thursday to formally establish a parliamentary group, a deadline that the European Council and the House of Representatives must also meet, but Orban’s timing in Vienna also tells another story. Today, Hungary in fact holds for six months the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, the body that brings together the governments of the 27 countries, in a moment of great political transformation for the European Union. The slogan is entirely a Trumpian platform, promising to take Brussels on a whirlwind: “Make Europe great again.”