Despite the fact that Patriots for Europe (PfE), a new right-wing political group in the European Parliament, has surpassed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in terms of seats, there appears to be no animosity between the parties. This is illustrated by Meloni’s recent defence of the group, which counts Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán among its co-founders.
‘The idea that Patriots for Europe is pro-Putin comes from outside analysts,’ Meloni said on Tuesday upon arriving at the NATO summit in Washington. She added that
the claim that the PfE is a pro-Putin group is not true.
It was the first time the ECR founder spoke since the formation of the PfE on Monday, which saw her own political group slip from third to fourth place, partly because the Spanish party VOX chose the PfE instead of the ECR. Additionally, Meloni’s coalition partner Lega, led by Matteo Salvini, has also joined Orbán’s group.
The Italian Prime Minister also referred to the French elections, stating that analysts’ interpretation of the French National Rally (RN) party led by Marine Le Pen losing the elections was ‘too simplistic’. ‘No one can declare victory: none of the three political fronts can govern independently,’ Meloni said.
Disregarding the Electoral Will
However, despite being the third largest group, the PfE may not be able to control a single committee in the new European Parliament that is about to be set up. This is due to the long-established cordon sanitaire applied by mainstream political groups. As was previously the case with the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, which disappeared with the formation of the PfE, the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and the liberal Renew could exclude PfE representatives from committee chairmanships. POLITICO recently reported that the PfE aims to chair the culture and transport committees. However, they expect the EPP, S&D, and Renew to put up candidates against them, which means
they will not have enough votes to elect the chairs.
‘I expect the democratic forces in Parliament to ensure that the new Russian-friendly group is not allowed to participate in shaping the European Parliament,’ German social democrat MEP Katarina Barley told POLITICO. ‘The firewall to the far right must stand firm. No official positions, such as committee chairs, may go to members of this group,’ she added.
As is clear, such a move would once again mean a complete disregard for the will of the European electorate and a complete disregard for democracy. However, this is not surprising from mainstream European political groups. The same happened when the EU’s top jobs were elected, where Giorgia Meloni—then the leader of the third-largest political group—was completely left out of the negotiations.
Orbán stated at the time that instead of listening to the electorate, the EPP finally joined forces with the socialists and the liberals: they made a deal and divided up the EU leadership among themselves, ignoring not only the results of the EP elections but also the will of the European people.
Jean-Paul Garraud, a veteran MEP from the RN, also spoke out against the cordon sanitaire. ‘We are here in a sort of temple of democracy, and those who permanently lecture us set against us a rule which is totally anti-democratic…it’s totally unacceptable,’ he opined. ‘With the evolution of the political landscape, it seems to me very difficult to impose this very undemocratic functioning on us today,’ he said, adding that the Patriots represent millions of EU voters. The group may be new, but it’s the third largest in the Parliament and has 84 MEPs from parties in 12 countries.
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