The French National Rally’s 30 MEPs “will fully play their role in a large group which will influence the power balance of Europe,” party president Jordan Bardella said.
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), the largest national conservative party in the European Parliament (EP), is set to formally join Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s new parliamentary group, the Patriots for Europe, during its constitutive meeting on Monday, July 8th. With Matteo Salvini’s Lega following it in, the ‘rebranding’ of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group will be complete, and the Patriots will be the third largest parliamentary group in Brussels.
The switch from the ID to the Patriots by the French and most of the other delegations had been heavily rumored for the past week, but the official move was postponed due to the second round of the French elections on Sunday, July 7th. RN president Jordan Bardella finally announced joining the Patriots that evening.
“At long last, starting tomorrow our MEPs will fully play their role in a large group which will influence the power balance in Europe, to refuse being flooded by migrants, punitive environmentalism, and the confiscation of our sovereignty,” Bardella said.
A week earlier, the Patriots were founded by three parties: Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, the Czech ANO, and the Austrian FPÖ. They were soon joined by others during the week, with Geert Wilders’ Dutch PVV, Portugal’s Chega, the Danish People’s Party, and the Flemish Vlaams Belang all switching from ID. Meanwhile, Spain’s VOX made a surprise exit from Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) group to join them as well.
Bardella’s announcement leaves only two parties in the ID which is now unviable on its own and will be formally dissolved on Friday after five years. Matteo Salvini’s Lega with its six seats will follow RN into the Patriots. After the rebranded group admitted a much larger Czech delegation in the form of Andrej Babiš’ ANO, the Czech SPD’s lone MEP will no longer have a place and is forced instead to join Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)’s own group, ‘The Sovereignists.’
This will make the Patriots the third-largest group in Brussels with 79 seats. The prestigious spot was long held by Macron’s liberal Renew, the third leg of the ruling ‘Ursula coalition’ which is now being pushed down to fifth place. ECR, as the other national conservative group, was already celebrating that it managed to dethrone the liberals when VOX defected, shrinking Meloni’s group to 78 seats.
The Patriots for Europe is set to formalize during its constitutive meeting in Brussels on Monday. Despite it being founded by Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán—whose Fidesz party will be the second largest delegation with 11 seats—the Patriots’ purpose was to be a rebranded ID group and will be led by the French with their 30 MEPs, insider sources said.
The group’s internal administration largely stays the same. It’s likely that the Hungarian, Czech, and Spanish delegations—the only new additions to the former ID—will be given a vice presidency each.
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