Orban promotes the creation of a new group in the European Parliament with far-right parties from Austria and the Czech Republic

The leaders of the three big populist and nationalist parties in Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic, led by the Hungarian Prime Minister, ultra Viktor Orban, announced the creation of a new far-right bloc in the European Parliament in Vienna this Sunday. “The aim is that this group soon becomes the strongest right-wing group in the European Parliament,” said the Hungarian leader, whose country will assume the rotating presidency of the European Council starting tomorrow.

The new bloc, which will still need the support of at least four other parties to form, will be called “Patriots for Europe”. The three founding far-right groups are the ruling Hungarian party Fidesz, the opposition Austrian liberal party FPÖ and the Czech opposition party “Alliance of Dissatisfied Citizens” (ANO). All three parties, which focus their policy on curbing immigration to Europe, were winners in the recent European elections in their respective countries.

In addition to the restrictive immigration policy, the three defended the lifting of the future European ban on vehicles with combustion engines, in addition to reviewing the so-called “New Green Deal” for the ecological transformation of the European economy, a so-called “manifesto patriotic” they signed together with Orbán, the leader of the FPÓ, Herbert Kickl, and the leader of the ANO and former Czech prime minister, the tycoon Andrej Babiš.

The three ultra leaders assured during the presentation of the initiative in Vienna that their declaration aims to become a “carrier rocket” to inspire other European structures to their cause, although they did not want to specify which other national European parties are on board. They are in talks on the formation of this bloc.

“The political change in Europe has begun!” Orban said in a message on his x account. “The European population wants three things: peace, order and growth. The current elite in Brussels has given them only war, migration and stagnation,” the Hungarian leader said. “In this situation, it is our duty to implement the will of the voters,” he added.

If successful, Patriots for Europe will be the third faction with radical right-wing tendencies, alongside Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). The three far-right parties that came together this Sunday have 24 MEPs, one more than the minimum 23 needed to form a faction in the European Parliament. Nevertheless, they still need to obtain the support and backing of at least four other parties in the group to formalise this parliamentary alliance.

Kickl, who leads polling in Austria with 27% of voting intention ahead of the general election on September 29, has assured that from now on “all political forces that wish to join this positive reform effort will be welcome.” “From what I have heard in recent days, there will be much more (support) than some people can imagine right now,” the far-right leader said cryptically, without giving more details.