Orban Push Lands Right-Wing 'Patriots Of Europe' Alliance In European Parliament

A new right-wing alliance announced recently by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been accredited in the European Parliament with French National Rally (RN) leader Jordan Bardella as its chairman, a spokesman for the Hungarian leader said via social media on July 8.

The registration of the Patriots For Europe grouping followed posts earlier in the day by Orban spokesman Zoltan Kovacs saying Bardella and Marine Le Pen's RN and the Italian Lega party led by Matteo Salvini would join.

"PatriotsforEurope has been officially accredited as the new defining right-wing political group of the [European Parliament]," Kovacs tweeted under the phrase "historic moment."

"Our political group will start its journey with [Bardella] as chairman and [Fidesz] MEP Kinga Gal as the first vice-chairman," he added.

Such groupings require a minimum of 23 representatives from at least seven EU member states.

The additions of the French and Italians after commitments from Danes, Spaniards, Czechs, and Austrians, and others suggested they could have quickly become the third-largest faction in the European legislative chamber.

"With 84 representatives from 12 countries our alliance of European patriots will fight for the future and sovereignty of the European people!" Kovacs said.

Le Pen's party colleagues had reportedly signaled their intention to join the Orban-backed grouping ahead of her national-populist party's third-place finish in French national elections in which the political left and right teamed up to beat back the surging RN's hopes of a win.

"This new right-wing faction could become the third-largest in the European Parliament," Orban spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said earlier.

Kovacs also tweeted that the Patriots For Europe "continues to grow with the addition of Italy's Lega party" led by Matteo Salvini.

Salvini confirmed Lega's participation, saying on social media that "after a lot of work, the large Patriots group is born together with the Lega in Brussels, which will be decisive in changing the future of this Europe."

Orban announced the Patriots for Europe alliance in Vienna on June 30 alongside Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) President Herbert Kickl and billionaire former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who heads the Czech ANO party.

Orban vowed that it would "quickly" dominate the European political right.

Salvini estimated that the Patriots have attracted 80 members, which would outpace the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party group led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Lega's domestic ally.

But Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said it would not join the Patriots for Europe.

Orban's right-wing Fidesz party has been isolated in the European Parliament since quitting the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) group under threat of expulsion in 2021.

Elections in early June for the European Parliament showed big gains for Europe's far right, although Fidesz suffered a setback amid a challenge from party defector Peter Magyar and his center-right Tisza Party.

The Hungarian prime minister has talked openly about his plans to turn the country from a democracy into an "illiberal state," and the government has taken control of much of Hungary's print and broadcast media.

Orban has hammered Brussels as his government imposed controversial laws on LGBT speech and clashed with the bloc over perceived backsliding on democratic and media freedoms.

He has also cozied up to Moscow diplomatically and economically while resisting EU and other sanctions imposed on Russia to punish its unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 and refusing to join NATO and other Western efforts to help arm Kyiv.

His self-described "peace mission" since Hungary took up the rotating six-month EU Council presidency has angered EU leaders, who quickly spoke out to say Orban did not represent the bloc in any potential negotiations about Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.