On Monday, 8 July, Patriots for Europe (PfE) has been officially accredited as a political group in the European Parliament. The historic moment was reported by Zoltán Kovács, Hungarian State Secretary for International Communication and Relations, on X. According to Kovács, the PfE’s chairman will be Jordan Bardella, president of the French National Rally (RN), while the first vice-chairman will be Kinga Gál, MEP for Fidesz.
‼️ Historic moment ‼️
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) July 8, 2024
🇪🇺 ✍️ #PatriotsforEurope has been officially accredited as the new defining right-wing political group of the @Europarl_EN.
🤝 Our political group will start its journey with @J_Bardella as chairman and @FideszEP MEP Kinga Gál as the first vice-chairman.… pic.twitter.com/bdWF6yzdl6
The other vice-chairmans will be Roberto Vannacci (Lega, Italy), Klára Dostálová (ANO, Czech Republic), Sebastiaan Stöteler (PVV, the Netherlands), António Tânger Corrêa (CHEGA, Portugal), Hermann Tertsch (VOX, Spain), and Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ, Austria). Anders Vistisen (Danish People’s Party, Denmark) was elected as Chief Whip, and Gerolf Annemans (Vlaams Belang) as Treasurer.
In a statement, Jordan Bardella emphasized that PfE represents the hopes of tens of millions of European citizens who still value identity, sovereignty, and freedom. ‘As patriotic forces, we are going to work together to retake our institutions and reorient policies to serve our nations and peoples,’ he underlined.
First Vice-Chairman Kinga Gál stressed that the European election results clearly showed that a significant number of voters want the EU to protect its borders and support European cooperation, but not an EU that acts beyond its competences and punishes member states for carrying out their own policies.
‘We will be their voice for the next five years,’
Gál pointed out.
The PFE will include parties from 12 member states and will consist of 84 MEPs, making it the third-largest political group in the soon-to-be-formed new European Parliament. The following parties have joined the new formation:
- National Rally (France): 30 MEPs
- Fidesz and Christian Democratic People’s Party (Hungary): 11 MEPs
- Lega (Italy): 8 MEPs
- ANO (Czech Republic): 7 MEPs
- Oath and Motorists (Czech Republic): 2 MEPs
- FPÖ (Austria): 6 MEPs
- PVV (Netherlands): 6 MEPs
- VOX (Spain): 6 MEPs
- Vlaams Belang (Flanders, Belgium): 3 MEPs
- CHEGA (Portugal): 2 MEPs
- Danish People’s Party (Denmark): 1 MEPs
- Voice of Reason (Greece): 1 MEPs
- Latvia First (Latvia): 1 MEPs
Patriots for Europe was established on 30 June by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, President of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) Herbert Kickl, and former Czech Prime Minister and ANO party President Andrej Babiš. The new political group aims to reshape the landscape of European governance and address the pressing issues faced by the continent, including illegal migration and the war in Ukraine.
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