The new far-right union in the European Parliament "Patriots for Europe", which was launched a week ago by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, already includes enough parties to receive group status, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
In the last two days, the Dutch Freedom Party, the Belgian “Flemish Interest“ and the Danish People's Party announced their intention to join.
This means that in “Patriots for Europe” seven countries are already represented - an important condition to form the parliamentary group in the legislative body of the European Union.
According to the rules of the EP, in addition to having to represent a quarter of the EU member states, the political group must have at least 23 MEPs. A party is not allowed to be a member of more than one group.
Orbán's FIDES party, Austria's far-right Freedom Party and the Czech Movement of Disaffected Citizens were the first members of “Patriots for Europe” when the merger was first announced. He was later joined by the Spanish party “Vox“ and the Portuguese “Joke“.
The group's manifesto has a far-right focus on preserving national sovereignty in the European Union, fighting against illegal migration and weakening the EU's measures to combat climate change.