Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist group, Patriots for Europe, was officially established in the European Parliament today, making it the third-largest group in the European Parliament with 84 MEPs.
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The new far-right coalition, which was formed just last week, replaces Identity and Democracy (ID), a previous far-right group in the European Parliament that has since been dissolved.
The Patriots are rapidly gaining strength, with a number of parties announcing their participation in the project last week, and a major milestone was reached this morning when two important ex-ID parties that had not yet joined the group, France’s National Rally (RN) and Italy’s League, joined.
While the League dominated the ID in the last term, the largest Patriots delegation is Marine Le Pen’s RN with 30 MEPs, followed by Orbán’s Fidesz with 11, Matteo Salvini’s League with eight and Andrej Babiš’s ANO with seven.
Other national delegations include the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), the Spanish far-right party Vox, and the Dutch nationalist party PVV, with six MEPs each. The group also includes three MEPs from Belgium’s Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang, two MEPs from Portugal’s Chega!, two MEPs from the Czech Vow and Car party, two MEPs from Greece’s Voice of Reason, one MEP from Latvia First, and one MEP from the Danish People’s Party, for a total of 84 MEPs.
RN leader Jordan Bardella was appointed head of the group. “European Patriots are a symbol of hope for tens of millions of citizens of European countries who value their identity, sovereignty and freedom,” he said in a memo released after his election.
The first vice-president was Hungary’s Kinga Gal, the other vice-presidents were Robert Vanazzi (League), Klara Dostalová (ANO), Sebastian Steller (PVV), Antonio Tanger Correa (Cega), Hermann Telč (VOX) and Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ).
The Patriot group is only slightly larger than ID, which had 73 MEPs when it was formed in 2019, but its presence in parliament has become more visible as the total number of MEPs has fallen from 751 to 720.
With 84 MEPs, the Patriots outnumbered both the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) with 78 and the liberal New Europe party with 76, achieving Orbán’s initial goal of becoming the third largest party in the European Parliament.
