Le Pen’s National Rally to take control of far-right Patriots in EU Parliament

BRUSSELS — MEPs from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally are set to join the Patriots for Europe on Monday, making the new far-right group the third-largest in the European Parliament, several people involved in the discussions told POLITICO.

The 30 National Rally MEPs, who currently belong to the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID), will become the biggest delegation inside the new Patriots for Europe, which was formed in late June and also includes MEPs from Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s party, according to two ID MEPs and an ID official.

The Patriots clinching third place in Parliament — a position held by Emmanuel Macron’s Renew Europe since 2019 — would be a significant blow to the centrist coalition seeking a parliamentary majority to secure a second term for Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president.

Balázs Orbán, an MP serving as political director to Viktor Orbán (the two are not related) did not respond to questions about National Rally joining but confirmed the scale of the Patriots’ ambitions. “We want to quickly become the third-largest party,” he told POLITICO.

A large Patriots grouping would give the National Rally a significant position in Parliament despite disappointing results in the French legislative election on Sunday.

National Rally President and MEP Jordan Bardella hinted strongly that his party would join the Patriots in a speech Sunday evening, saying that “at long last, starting tomorrow our MEPs will fully play their role in a large group which will influence the power balance in Europe, to refuse being flooded by migrants, punitive environmentalism and the confiscation of our sovereignty.”

National Rally President and MEP Jordan Bardella hinted strongly that his party would join the Patriots in a speech Sunday evening. | Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

The formal launch of the group is expected to take place in Brussels on Monday afternoon, according to ID staff and members.

The insiders said there had been plans to transfer the ID group into the Patriots sooner but it was delayed because of the French election. “[Marine Le Pen] was forcing everyone to postpone the group creation date,” said an ID official.

Orbán launched the Patriots on June 30 in Vienna, alongside Andrej Babiš’ Czech ANO party and Herbert Kickl’s Austrian FPÖ.

Since then, a flurry of other MEPs — many of whom used to sit in the ID group — have announced their intention to join: Six from Geert Wilders’ PVV in the Netherlands; six from Spain’s Vox (who previously sat in the ECR); three from Belgian party Vlaams Belang; two from the Portuguese Chega party; and Anders Vistisen from the Danish People’s Party, who will serve as the Patriots’ chief whip.

Eight MEPs from Matteo Salvini’s League are also expected to join. With Le Pen’s MEP, the group would have 79 lawmakers, slightly more than both the liberal Renew Europe group and the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the Polish Law and Justice party.

ID had 49 MEPs in the outgoing Parliament, where it was the sixth-largest group.

However, the group’s power is likely to be checked by a so-called cordon sanitaire, whereby other groups will block it from holding key positions such as committee chairmanships or Parliament vice presidency roles.

Rebrand or restart?  

There are diverging opinions about whether the Patriots is effectively a rebranding of ID or something completely fresh.

“According to our intention it will be a new party, with [a] new structure, more professional work and big impact,” said Balázs Orbán. He described the Patriots as a “whole new ecosystem in Brussels for patriotic forces.”

A second ID official agreed: “There will be a totally new group, no rebranding exercise at all.”

But an ID MEP said: “We’re using the old vehicle,” and “It’s basically just a bigger group under a different name.”

The group’s administration will largely stay the same, and the Czechs and Hungarians will each get a vice president, that lawmaker added.

It will be “not only Orbán’s group,” said ID President Gerolf Annemans. | Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga/AFP via Getty Images

Both the MEP and the first ID official said that one of Marine Le Pen’s MEPs would be the president of the Patriots group.

It will be “not only Orbán’s group,” said ID President Gerolf Annemans.

“The only thing the Hungarians had been caring about is that they could not join an existing group,” the ID MEP said.

Sovereignists

The only parts of Identity and Democracy that are unlikely to join the Patriots are the Czech SPD, which in Ivan David has just one MEP, and the far-right Estonian MEP Jaak Madison, who this week joined ECR.

Then there’s the Alternative for Germany party, which was excluded from the ID group just before the election following controversial comments by its lead candidate, Maximilian Krah, and scandals surrounding its second-placed candidate Petr Bystron. Both were both elected.

The bulk of the AfD MEPs — without Krah — could join another new outfit called the Sovereignists, which could scrape together the requisite numbers needed to form a group, although it would likely be Parliament’s smallest.

Among those in talks to join the Sovereigntists, according to an ID official, are David; the far-right Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík; 14 AfD MEPs; three MEPs from Bulgaria’s Revival; a Hungarian MEP from Our Home Movement; French Reconquest MEP Sarah Knafo; a Lithuanian MEP; and some members of the Polish Confederation party. However, some in the AfD want to find a route into the Patriots. If that happens, the Sovereignists likely wouldn’t get the numbers required to form a group.