Brussels (Brussels Morning) – Hungarian PM Orban founded the “Patriots for Europe”, an association with Herbert Kickl, the leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom party, and Andrej Babiš, the former PM of Czechia.
What is Orbán’s new ‘Patriots for Europe’ alliance?
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Sunday 30 June 2024 introduced a new alliance with Austria’s far-right Freedom Party and the leading Czech opposition party, which hopes to lure other partners and become the most significant hard right-wing group in the European Parliament. Orbán journeyed to Vienna to offer the “Patriots for Europe” alliance of his Fidesz party with Herbert Kickl’s far-right Freedom Party and the ex-Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO party, a day before Hungary assumed the European Union’s rotating presidency for six months.
The European Parliament elections in early June bolstered far-right parties, though their performances varied from country to country, but left ambiguous to what extent they would manage to work jointly. Until now, they have been scattered across two groups in the EU legislature, plus a considerable number of unaligned parties.
Can Orbán’s alliance reshape the European Parliament?
Orbán in recent years has seemed to relish opportunities to stop, water down or pause key EU decisions, routinely going against the grain of most other heads on issues like the war in Ukraine and ties with Russia and China. His public opposition to EU procedures and stances has long discouraged other governments in the bloc and forced him to the margins of the continent’s mainstream.
“What Europeans want is three things: peace, order and development,” Orbán stated. “And what they are gaining from the elite in Brussels today is fighting, migration and stagnation.” Orban also published about the launch on X. “Three political parties joined forces today: the strongest Austrian party, the strongest Czech party and the strongest Hungarian party. We aim to become the strongest right-wing group in European politics,” it read.
How does ‘Patriots for Europe’ plan to grow?
However, the three partiers will require to attract lawmakers from at least four more EU nations to successfully form a group in the new parliament. Freedom Party chief Herbert Kickl stated that the new European Parliament will meet for the first time in Strasbourg on July 16. He stated that “starting immediately … all political parties that want to join in our political and positive reform effort are very welcome.” Kickl said, “From what I have listened in recent days … there will be more of them than some of you probably imagine right now.” He didn’t anoint any potential partners, and the three-party bosses didn’t take questions.
The Freedom Party narrowly succeeded in first place in the European Parliament election and hopes to succeed in Austria’s national election on Sept. 29. All three parties are pro-Russian; none of them back Ukraine in its fight against Russia which undertook a full-scale invasion in 2022. “We will choose national sovereignty to federalism, liberty to orders, and peace to war,” Babis said, directing to the war in Ukraine.
