In Warsaw, high-ranking representatives of around 15 right-wing parties from various European countries have been discussing a ranks in the EU Parliament since Friday. French right-wing populist and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said on Friday that she was optimistic that a new “political force” would emerge in the coming months. The FPÖ spoke on Saturday by broadcast of a further “interlocking step of patriotic forces in Europe”
Also there: Kickl, Salvini and Poland and Hungary’s heads of government
A union of the right could “be the second force in the European Parliament”, argued Le Pen. Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke of a “turning point in the history of Europe, the European Union and the sovereign EU member states”. It is important to “put a stop to usurpation, which concentrates power in the hands of the European elites”.
The parties now gathered in Warsaw signed a joint declaration last July that they want to found a parliamentary group in the EU Parliament. Also present were the head of the Italian Lega party, Matteo Salvini, Hungary’s prime minister and head of the Fidesz party, Viktor Orban, the chairman of the Polish ruling party PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczysnki, and the chairman of the Spanish party Vox, Santiago Abascal .
In addition to Le Pen, the signatories of the July declaration included FPÖ boss Herbert Kickl. On Saturday the FPÖ announced that it had been represented at the deliberations in Warsaw with Federal Party Chairman Marlene Svazek and that it fully supported the joint declaration. The participants shared “the common goal of preserving the cultural and political diversity of sovereign nation-states in Europe, but above all to act against further centralization and to courageously and consistently tackle the issues of migration, border protection and the relocation of competencies back to the national level” Svazek after the two days of deliberations in Warsaw.
Above all, a further interlocking step at parliamentary level was discussed in the European Parliament. Here, too, the FPÖ and its EU delegation leader Harald Vilimsky have played a leading role for many years. “The further interlocking step paves the way for an even more powerful representation of patriotic forces in the EU Parliament and the participation of these parties in the future of Europe,” said Vilimsky in the broadcast.
FPÖ sits in a joint parliamentary group with right-wing extremist AfD
In the EU Parliament, the FPÖ as well as Le Pen’s party colleagues from the Rassemblement National and the Italian Lega sit together in the right-wing populist faction Identity and Democracy, to which the German AfD also belongs. PiS and Vox, on the other hand, are part of a second EU-critical group, the European Conservatives and Reformers (EKR). Orbans Fidesz had long been a member of the European People’s Party, which also includes the ÖVP. However, the Fidesz MEPs have been non-attached since March.
The parties are united by the fear of their countries losing sovereignty vis-à-vis the EU. They are also on the same wavelength when it comes to social issues such as dealing with sexual minorities and rejecting migration. A possible obstacle to the PiS joining forces with Fidesz, Lega and Rassemblement National, however, is their proximity to Russia.
The German AfD is considered an outsider in this spectrum of right-wing parties. The German right-wing populists are particularly suspicious of the Polish PiS for historical reasons. The AfD did not sign the declaration last July.
Source: Nachrichten
