The group announced on Wednesday that the European Conservatives and Reformists faction had held its founding meeting. On his website.
In December, Viktor Orbán said it was only a matter of time before they joined, and it finally became certain a few weeks ago that Fidesz would be excluded. (According to earlier news from Corriere della Sera, the party family leader, Giorgia Meloni, said no, and Fidesz later referred to the fact that the European Council of Reformists had recruited the “strongly anti-Hungarian Romanian AUR movement,” thus refusing to let it in.)
Thus the European Council faction was created without a Hungarian member with 84 members. It remains the third largest group, with almost all the previous factions retaining their founding meetings.
The meeting was originally scheduled for June 26, but was postponed first from morning to late afternoon and then to July 3. The next day, PiS deputy chairman Mateusz Morawiecki clearly confirmed: they are discussing a new group. He put the chances of them leaving the ECR and allying with Fidesz, the Czech ANO and the Slovenian SDS at fifty percent. According to information from several newspapers, the reason is that they could not reach an agreement with Meloni's party on leadership positions. The pressure is on Euronews According to him, this had an effect: an agreement on the posts was reached one day after Morawiecki's announcement.
If the withdrawal was merely a tactical move, it seems to have worked: according to the statement from the founding meeting of the Economic and Social Council, the party was named co-chair of the faction. Following his appointment, Joachim Brodzinski said, among other things, that he was certain that the group’s voice would be effective and convincing in the European Parliament. “For us conservatives, respect for the member states, whether large or small, is of central importance. As good patriots, we will continue to defend them.”
Without the Law and Justice Party, it will be difficult for the Patriots to become the third largest faction.
In an interview with state television on Monday evening, the Prime Minister spoke about:
A third and then a second largest group will soon be created in the European Parliament. “We will soon overtake everyone,” and “we have a fairly detailed action plan” for this purpose.
PiS has one of the largest delegations in the European Parliament, with 20 members, and the second-largest number of representatives in the European Council after Meloni. If someone wanted to quickly overtake the group and take third place, it would be hard to find a better way than to lure PiS to weaken the PJD and strengthen its own team at the same time. (The Polish party is followed by delegations with six representatives in the Eurosceptic group by number of seats.)
At the founding meeting of the European Council, a new member was also admitted, the independent Estonian Jack Maddison. The representative had previously been represented by a Euronews correspondent making news Also with the new faction coming.
The leaders of Fidesz, ANO and the Austrian Freedom Party signed the agreement on the Patriots for Europe faction on Sunday. The next day, the Hungarian prime minister said they would hold their inaugural meeting on July 8. In principle, you can switch to another faction at any time, but if PiS switches, it will do so days after attending the founding meeting of another group and taking the co-chair position.
According to Nepzava's correspondent, the founding meeting of the identity disappeared.
The creation of a faction requires at least 23 representatives from at least seven countries. Based on the announcements so far, the Patriots for Europe movement only meets the last condition, but as we wrote about in our analysis, it may still have significant reserves in the far-right Identity and Democracy group.
According to Bloomberg, France’s National Pact party, which won the most seats in the entire European Union, 30, could pass from there, and Viktor Orban spoke of the possible inclusion of the Italians in his interview on Monday, through which he could get the Italian league, which has enthusiastically welcomed the new group. Previously, Politico He wrote about it. To a paper called Domani Referring to the fact that RN and Liga could agree to leave ID, according to the Italian side, they would practically rename the current faction and expand it with the new group.
Originally, the institute was also scheduled to hold its founding meeting on Wednesday evening at 9 a.m. on this subject. On his website And that On your X account Nor any information. According to Nepsava's correspondent in Brussels The event has disappeared from the EP calendar.
