Fidesz’s Patriots for Europe EP group formed as third-largest – UPDATED

A large party group, Patriots of Europe, is about to be born on Monday, with the participation of Italy’s Lega party, “and this will be key to changing the future of Europe”, party leader Matteo Salvini said on Facebook.

Lega is set to announce that it will leave its current party family, Identity and Democracy, and join Patriots for Europe, within hours.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Herbert Kickl, the leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, and the leader of the Czech ANO party, Andrej Babis, met in Vienna to launch the new formation in June. Since then, the Spanish Vox party, Portugal’s Chega, Flemish party Vlaams Belang, and the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) have also announced that they are joining the group.

The third largest group

“We are formed! The Patriots for Europe is the 3rd largest political group in the European Parliament” – announced Kinga Gál, Chair of the Fidesz delegation to the European Parliament, on Facebook.

Orbán’s MEP: Formation of Patriots for Europe EP group ‘historic moment’

Tamás Deutsch, the head of ruling’ Fidesz’s European parliamentary delegation, has hailed the establishment of the new Patriots for Europe EP group as a “historic moment”. Deutsch told Hungarian journalists after the group’s inaugural session in Brussels on Monday that the party group would work to get a “free and independent Europe back on its feet”.

He said the support of the more than 2 million Hungarians who voted in last month’s EP elections gave the Hungarian right “significant strength”. He added that more than 20 million people had voted for the politicians of Patriots for Europe and the change its platform aimed to bring to European politics.

The politicians of the new group, he said, were able and willing to work to preserve freedom, peace and Europe’s Christian heritage, as well as to work for a “more liveable, strong Europe based on nation-states”. “We’re thinking in terms of a Europe of nations,” he said. “We will stop illegal migration at the European level and protect Europe and Europeans.” Patriots for Europe established its EP group with 84 MEPs from 12 member states.

Read also:

• Patriots for Europe: Strong far-right party joins Orbán’s new European group
• BREAKING – PM Orbán founded new European party in Vienna: Patriots for Europe