Patriots for Europe promises to “protect national sovereignty, fight illegal migration and review the Green Deal”
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The far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) announced this Sunday the creation of a political alliance with the Fidesz party of the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and with the populist Czech party of the Alliance of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) of Andrej Babis, forerunner of Patriots for Europe, a new right-wing bloc in the European Parliament.
The leader of the Austrian party, Herbert Kickl, signed today in Vienna together with Orbán and Babis what they described as a “patriotic manifesto”, the main lines of what aims to be, in the words of the Hungarian prime minister, the largest right-wing bloc in the European Parliament; a manifesto that will serve as a “launching rocket” for this new bloc, whose creation has been encouraged by the rise of the far right in the last European elections on June 9.
The intention of this future bloc, still in the process of formation, is, according to Orbán, to “fight against the Brussels establishment” that “still does not understand the wishes of voters” expressed in the elections and to represent “Europeans who are against war, migration, inflation and the Green Deal.”
“The Brussels elite is resisting,” Orbán continued, “because Brussels is not a democratic construct so, in this situation, it is our duty to impose the will of the voters” through an initial alliance that combines “the strongest in Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary” with the responsibility of launching “this new platform.
Following the “existential” European elections, the signatories understand that “the political division in Europe is no longer between conservatives and liberals or right and left, but between centrists – precursors of a new European “superstate” – and patriots and sovereignists, who defend the preservation and strengthening of the European nations that we control,” according to the manifesto, published by Orbán on his Facebook page.
At the press conference, Orbán elaborated on these principles: “We will stop illegal migration, we are representatives of the traditional family and believers in national sovereignty,” said the president, who described these ideas as “the reason why Hungary is an island in the sea of liberal Europe.” However, Orbán said that these pillars “are not enough” and that “what is needed is success and good governance.”
The manifesto signed today thus begins with the idea of ”recovering the institutions and redirecting European politics in a direction that serves our nations and people” with priority of “sovereignty over federalism, freedom over dictates and peace over war: this is the manifesto of patriots at the service of Europe”.
A NEW BLOCK
Orban’s Fidesz has been orphaned in the EU since it had to leave the conservative and moderate European People’s Party in 2021. Austria’s Freedom Party, for its part, has been a member of the Identity and Democracy group headed by the French far-right National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
ANO, led by former Czech Prime Minister Babis, will leave the liberal group Renew Europe to join this new bloc announced this Sunday by the three political leaders and which intends to incorporate new members in the coming days.
In any case, this future grouping must have a minimum of 23 seats to formally create a separate group within the European Parliament and include MEPs from at least seven member states to be recognised. While they meet the first requirement, they still need the backing of MEPs from four other countries.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours before Hungary assumes the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on Monday, to the dismay of several states over the anti-democratic drift of its prime minister — an ally of Donald Trump and close to the Kremlin — and which the European Parliament has tried to stop.
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