‘Patriots for Europe’ — Le Pen-Orbán Alliance Becomes Third Largest in EU Parliament, Biggest Populist Group in History

A new European parliamentary alliance between Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, and other leading populists — the ‘Patriots for Europe’ — is now the third largest group in the EU Parliament and the biggest populist group in the history of the bloc.

Off the back of large gains across the continent in last month’s EU Parliament elections, a new populist grouping has leapfrogged Giorgia Meloni’s centre-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Emmanuel Macron’s neo-liberal Renew Europe (RE) to become the third-largest faction in Brussels.

Replacing the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, the Patriots for Europe group will be headlined by former French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz.

With 84 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the new grouping will have only 11 more than its ID predecessor, however, its impact will be enhanced by the reduction of parliamentarians from 750 to 720. It also marks the largest grouping of populist factions in the history of the EU Parliament, the Guardian reports.

It also means the populists have surpassed Meloni’s ECR (78) and Macron’s RE (76) in voting strength and only behind Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP) at 188 and the Socialists & Democrats (SD) at 136.

The group will be led by rising National Rally star Jordan Bardella and Hungary’s Kinga Gál as the vice chairman.

“The Patriots for Europe represent hope for the tens of millions of citizens in the European Nations who value their identity, their sovereignty and their freedom,” Bardella said per Euronews.

Hungarian leader Orbán said: “We don’t want a European empire, we don’t want a European United States, we don’t want gray mass control from Brussels, we don’t want a command-and-control system. We want national sovereignty and independence under our own national flags.”

Other prominent partners within the new Patriots group will include Italian firebrand Matteo Salvini’s Lega, the ANO party of former Czech PM Andrej Babiš, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), Spain’s populist VOX party, and Dutch kingmaker Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV). Salvini said that the Patriots “will be decisive in changing the future of Europe”.

The grouping could have been significantly larger, however, the decision by Marine Le Pen to cast out the Alternative for Germany (AfD) out of the previous populist alliance has been carried forward, meaning that the AfD’s 15 votes will remain non-attached. However, it is likely that in many instances, the German party will continue to vote in the same manner as the Patriot group, effectively bolstering its presence, regardless.

There is also still time before the new European Parliament meets for the first time in Strasbourg next week for the groupings to change. Orbán and Le Pen have both lobbied Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to form a supergroup between her centre-right ECR and the populist right, which if formed, could become the second largest bloc within the parliament, overtaking the socialists.

However, divisions remain on the right, with Meloni abandoning the hardline stance against immigration which she initially campaigned on as well as appearing to cosy up to globalist factions within Brussels, becoming particularly close to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Meloni and many within her group have also been staunch supporters of continuing the war in Ukraine, putting them at odds with Orbán, who has been one of the leading voices calling for peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

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