(CN) — The emergence of a powerful new political group in Brussels on the extreme right, led by France’s Marine Le Pen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is shaking up European politics.
Patriots for Europe officially launched Monday, just over a week after Orbán and like-minded allies in Czechia and Austria announced its formation.
In terms of seats in the European Parliament, it likely will surpass far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s kindred national-conservative group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, to become the third-biggest faction in Brussels, delivering a setback in Meloni’s efforts to present herself as Europe’s foremost radical-right leader.
The birth of the Patriots for Europe is serving as a vehicle to reunite and reboot an embattled and fragmented far-right movement that experienced both recent electoral highs and lows at national and European ballots — most recently with Le Pen’s major setback in French legislative elections on Sunday.
The new coalition largely replaces and re-brands a political faction in the European Parliament called Identity and Democracy, which has been the most radical right-wing camp in Brussels with its vehement opposition to the EU’s immigration, green and social policies and the push to centralize powers in Brussels.
In many ways, the Patriots for Europe can be seen as a political triumph for Orbán. It helps bring the divisive authoritarian-leaning Hungarian leader back into the thick of EU politics. After being cast out of the main conservative group in Brussels, his Fidesz party members in the European Parliament have not been aligned with any group since March 2021.
Fidesz won 10 of Hungary’s 21 seats in the parliament.
“For the Orbán government and the Fidesz party, it certainly is a success, or will be framed as one,” said Gabriela Greilinger, an expert on Hungarian politics at the University of Georgia in the United States. “It’s a huge success to now be part of a new group, especially one that is seemingly going to be the third-biggest one in the European Parliament.”
Along with announcing his new political project, Orbán has taken center stage in Europe after Hungary’s turn to head the Council of the European Union took effect on July 1.
Every six months, a different EU state is handed the reins to set the EU’s policy agenda. In taking the helm, Hungary caused consternation by using the motto “Make Europe Great Again” for its presidency, an obvious allusion to former U.S. President Donald Trump.
There was even discussion of taking the unprecedented step of blocking Orbán from holding the presidency.
On Friday, Orbán outraged many of his European counterparts by holding talks over Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, three days after he went to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Monday, Orbán was in Beijing to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping on what he dubbed was the third stage in his “peace mission.”
Orbán’s most dramatic challenge to the EU mainstream may come with this new political group, but it’s likely to remain on the sidelines of decisionmaking in Brussels: Europe’s mainstream political groups refuse to collaborate with the far right, especially those with views deemed to be pro-Russia.
Still, the Patriots for Europe have grown quickly. They are poised to become the third-largest group in the European Parliament with about 84 seats. Only the big-tent centrist groups on the right and left, the European People’s Party and the Socialists and Democrats, would be bigger when the parliament convenes later this month.
Over the past week, the Patriots for Europe have added several far-right parties to its ranks, including Le Pen’s National Rally in France on Monday, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Matteo Salvini’s League in Italy, the Danish People’s Party, Portugal’s Chega and the Flemish Vlaams Belang in Belgium. All these switched from Identity and Democracy.
The biggest surprise came on Friday when Vox in Spain announced its six parliamentarians would leave Meloni’s group and join Orbán’s faction.
Santiago Abascal, the Vox leader, called it an “historic opportunity” to fight against coalitions of center-right, socialist and far-left forces.
In launching the Patriots for Europe on June 30 in Vienna, Orbán touted it as the beginning of “political change in Europe.”
“European people want three things: peace, order and development,” he said. “And what they get from the current Brussels elite is war, migration and stagnation.”
At the unveiling in Vienna, Orbán was joined by former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, a controversial billionaire leader of the conservative Action for Dissatisfied Citizens party, and Herbert Kickl, the leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party. Babiš’s seven European parliamentarians defected from the liberal Renew camp in joining the Patriots while the Austrian party was formerly aligned with Identity and Democracy.
The group may grow even bigger should it open its doors to Germany’s Alternative for Germany, which was booted from Identity and Democracy shortly before the European elections in early June after its lead candidate, Maximilian Krah, refused to condemn all members of the Nazi paramilitary SS force. The German party, commonly known as AfD, won 14 seats in the European elections.
Le Pen’s National Rally formally announced it was joining the Patriots group on Monday, a day after it came in third in French legislative elections it had hoped to win. With its 30 European parliamentarians, National Rally will be the strongest party in the Patriots and Jordan Bardella, the party’s charismatic young leader, was made the group’s president Monday.
“Orbán likely considers it a badge of honor to be affiliated with her [Le Pen] and to be part of the leadership of such a large group,” Greilinger said.
She said this reshuffle on the extreme right may pave the way for further cooperation between Meloni’s group, the ECR, and the mainstream conservative European People’s Party.
“It might lead the center to further double down on their cooperation with ECR because they are largely seen as less radical and there is more common ground on issues like Ukraine,” Greilinger said. “However, I’d still be surprised if there would be very close cooperation with ECR, meaning significantly more than before.”
Before the European elections, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, an EPP leader, was criticized from many quarters after leaving open the possibility of working with Meloni. An alliance between the two women has been in the making ever since Meloni won the September 2022 parliamentary elections to become the first far-right leader of a major European nation.
Greilinger said the Patriots for Europe will seek to become a disruptive force in Brussels.
“Generally, I don’t expect them to become a positive, constructive force in the European Parliament or EU politics,” she said in an email. “Orbán and his Fidesz party are known for representing the opposite of EU common ground on most crucial issues, specifically Russia’s war in Ukraine, but also the EU Green Deal, the rule of law, etc. The rest of this new group holds ideologically similar positions.”
She said the group’s approach to the war in Ukraine — with many of its members advocating for a ceasefire and even allowing for concessions to Russia — is what sets them apart from Meloni’s group.
A party’s stance on Ukraine, she said, has become the litmus test for cooperation with and acceptance of the far-right.
“I still expect there to be a cordon sanitaire in place against the Patriots for Europe group, thereby minimizing their clout,” she added.
Still, given their large share of the seats in the parliament, the EU leadership will not be able to completely ignore the Patriots for Europe and their demands for representation.
“Being ostracized would allow Orbán and the whole Patriots group to shun the EU for trying to exclude or ignore them and enable them to use it as a propaganda point to their advantage,” Greilinger said. “Excluding them will certainly lead to more backlash from them and accusations that ‘Brussels’ is deliberately ‘ignoring the will of the people.’”
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.