Alternative for Germany explores creating a third ultras group in the European Parliament and integrating Elvis Pérez

More movements in the European extreme right. Following their expulsion from Identity and Democracy (ID) due to the break of Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the middle of the electoral campaign, the German extremists are looking for allies to set up a new group in the European Parliament, as published this Monday by the newspaper Der Spiegel. It would be the third group of the extreme right in the European Parliament, after ID and the Reformists and Conservatives (ECR), which includes Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and Vox, which is consolidating itself as a third force.

According to the German newspaper, the Alternative for Germany is exploring the creation of a new europhobic group called Los Soberanistas, which would include ultra organizations, such as Acabo la Fiesta from Spanish, led by Elvis Pérez and which enters this legislature with three MEPs. Other formations the AfD is supporting are the Bulgarian Vazrazhden, the Polish Confederation, SOS Romania; the Greek NIKH (Democratic Patriotic Movement); the Slovak Hanutie Republika; and the Hungarian Mi Hazank Mozgalom (Our Homeland Movement).

To form a new parliamentary group, at least 23 MEPs from seven different member states are required and the President of the European Parliament must be informed in a declaration containing the name of the group, a political declaration setting out the purpose of the group, and the names of the MEPs comprising it, as well as its organisational chart. The European Parliament’s rules state, “All members of the group shall declare in writing in an annex to the declaration that they share the same political affinities.”

Parliamentary sources give relevance to the need for parliamentary groups to indicate their political objectives since the rules of the European Parliament prohibit the formation of groups with only practical effects. Joining a parliamentary group is important from an economic point of view since they receive funding as well as visibility in the distribution of speaking time in debates.

However, parliamentary sources say they have not received any formal notification regarding the intention to form a new group.

A meeting is planned to be held next Thursday at noon. According to the newspaper Der Spiegel, an AfD member has reserved a room for one hundred people and catering service in the European Parliament for “the inaugural meeting of a new parliamentary group”.

The ID group expelled the Alternative for Germany after statements by its candidate Maximilian Krah, in which he assured that he would not say that “anyone wearing an SS uniform was directly a criminal.” This caused a rift with Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and Matteo Salvini’s La Lega, at a time when the French far-right leader was trying to create a ‘supergroup’ of the far-right with Meloni, which ultimately also did not prosper.

However, the ECR has already moved into third place by ousting the Renew Liberals by including eleven MEPs who were ‘without a political family’. Vox’s allies in the European Parliament have added to their ranks one MEP from the Danish Democratic Party; another from the Bulgarian ITN; another from the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union party; and three Frenchmen who left the far-right party Reconquet to form a new party together with Nicolas Bay, who was already a member of the group; and representatives from the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).

This last incorporation is controversial in Romania because of the growing anti-Ukraine position of that party. The group’s leadership is going to force its constituent parties to sign a declaration in which they commit to supporting Kiev in the face of Russian aggression. But Romania’s territorial conflict with Ukraine is not the only matter that arises from Auer’s joining the ECR, it is also complicated by the inclusion of Viktor Orban’s Fidesz (which has ten seats).

“The Romanian AUR party, known for its extreme anti-Hungarian stance, has joined the ECR group in the European Parliament. Fidesz will never share a faction with such a party in the European Parliament. It is not negotiable,” said Fidesz parliamentary leader Máté Kocsis. This refusal, a priori, leaves ID as the only option for Orbán. In any case, sources in the group assure that negotiations with Fidesz and other smaller parties are still ongoing, so they still have room to ‘fish’ for a few more seats.

For its part, Renew has suffered the flight of the Czech party ANO, which contributed seven MEPs, so the liberals have dropped to 74. In the absence of time to set up groups, the liberals wish to add some more deputies, but they have a hard time overcoming the ECR. In fact, this Monday Volt, which was one of the groups it was trying to sue, announced that it was fully integrating into Los Verdes.