BRUSSELS — Jordan Bardella of the French National Rally will be the president of the European Parliament’s new far-right group, Patriots for Europe.
National Rally on Monday officially joined the Patriots group, instantly becoming the largest national delegation with 30 MEPs. And Bardella was chosen as the Patriots’ president at a meeting in Brussels that lasted less than 20 minutes.
Patriots for Europe was formed in late June and also includes MEPs from Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s party, Fidesz. Kinga Gál of Fidesz was named first vice-president.
The former secretary-general of the Identity & Democracy group, Philip Claeys, will be the new group’s secretary-general, its most powerful administrative role.
The addition of National Rally MEPs means that Patriots for Europe is the Parliament’s third-largest group by a comfortable margin, with 84 lawmakers from 12 countries, according to a Patriots press release.
As well as National Rally and Fidesz, the other group members are the League (Italy), Vox (Spain), Chega (Portugal), Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (Czech Republic), Oath and Motorists (Czech Republic), Christian Democratic People’s Party (Hungary), Freedom Party (Austria), Party for Freedom (Netherlands), Vlaams Belang (Belgium), Danish People’s Party, Voice of Reason (Greece), and Latvia First.
In a statement, Bardella — who was not present at the meeting in Brussels — said the Patriots “represent hope for the tens of millions of citizens in the European Nations who value their identity, their sovereignty and their freedom. As patriotic forces, we are going to work together in order to retake our institutions and reorient policies to serve our nations and peoples.”
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