Later in 2014, they decided to create a new European-level structure, which became the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom. The Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) chose not to participate in this pan-European party, as it declined to be funded by the European Union.[21] The Polish Congress of the New Right (KNP), initially claimed that it would be part of the new alliance, but was accused in a press release by the French National Rally of spreading false claims in the Polish and Austrian media.[22] Ultimately the KNP took part in the creation of the party's new parliamentary group as its former leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke was evicted from the party to be replaced by Michal Marusik.
It was recognised by the European Parliament (EP) in 2015. Its maximum grant by the EP for this year[when?] is €1,170,746[23] plus €621,677 for its affiliated political foundation, the Fondation pour une Europe des Nations et des Libertés.[24]
The 1st congress of the movement was held on 28 June 2015 in Perpignan, France gathering some MEPs from the National Rally as well as a few of its local and national representatives members; the objective of this meeting was mainly about making the 1st year of action of the National Rally's MEPs in review.[25]
On 21 November 2015, MENF's think tank "Foundation for a Europe of Nations and Freedom" organised a colloquium ("L'euro, un échec inéluctable?") dealing with Euro and how it might be an inescapable failure. Jacques Sapir took part in this colloquium among others. The FENF, chaired by Gerolf Annemans, organised another colloquium on 2 April 2016 in Paris dealing with union representation and the development of professional organisations in France.[28]
The third colloquium of the movement took place on 4 March 2016 in the Flemish Parliament with VB's leader Tom Van Grieken and PVV's leader Geert Wilders. This colloquium entitled "Freedom" ("Vrijheid") dealt with liberties in Europe and how they would be threatened by immigration from "countries with cultures which are fundamentally different [from the European one]".[29]
The movement's member parties and allies met in July 2016 in Vienna, an event hosted by Austria's FPÖ. The French National Rally, Matteo Salvini's Northern League, the AfD, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, the Dutch Party for Freedom were present among other independent politicians and smaller European parties.[30]
According to Politico, the movement owed in 2016 the European Parliament €535,818. The reasons given by Politico were the forbidden use of European grants by the MENF party to finance national political parties and referendum campaigns.[31] The party strongly denied these allegations by saying that they just had to give the unused EU funds back to the European Parliament.[32]
In June 2024, the AfD left the ID Party to pre-empt its expulsion.[36]
In August 2024, the ID Party renamed itself to Patriots.eu,[37][38] with a new manifesto issued.[39] The new statutes published by the European Parliament revealed that Vlaams Belang's Gerolf Annemans would continue as President, with the National Rally's Catherine Griset receiving the Treasurer position. Freedom and Direct Democracy and the Slovak National Party were no longer listed as members.[40]
Platform
The Patriots.eu's platform is based around building a Europe that is united, rejecting the complete dismantling of the European Union, however is critical of the current activities of the European Union which it accuses of being ultra-liberal and too bureaucratic. The party platform wishes to build a Europe that is composed of nations that maintain their sovereignty and identity.[41][non-primary source needed]
Membership
Full members
The following national delegations are part of the Patriots.eu:[42][20][43]
The Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), despite not being a member of MENF, participated in its previous political group in the European Parliament, ENF.[49] Party leader, Geert Wilders has also attended ID Party events and appears in its promotional material.[42]The Blue Party led by former AfD leader, Frauke Petry and the UK Independence Party, then led by Gerard Batten, were both members of the ENF. Both the Blue Party and UKIP never became official members of MENF however were ideologically aligned.
Patriots.eu leaders also have public political relations of some kind with Brothers of Italy (FdI, Italy).[50] On 24 October 2015, MENF's leader and vice-president of the National Rally Louis Aliot met the current president of Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni in Trieste for a conference on immigration.[51] Also in 2015 Marine Le Pen praised SVP's victory during the 2015 Swiss election although the Swiss party does not have official links with the movement.[52] The movement launched an anti-immigration campaign in 2015 just like the SVP's campaign during Swiss referendum on immigration in 2014. In February 2017, French MEP Edouard Ferrand met with Vox's leaders during a meeting of the Spanish right-wing party.[53] Back in 2016, Vox's president Santiago Abascal had already met with one of the National Rally's leaders, Louis Aliot, also one of MENF's MEP in the European Parliament.[54]
On 24 January 2020, the ID Party's think tank, the ID Foundation, held an event in London that was addressed by Brexit Party MEP Robert Rowland.[55]
In October 2021, a delegation of Identity and Democracy representatives visited Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša, the leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party.[64]
In 2022, Fidesz sent representatives, including Justice Minister Judit Varga, to address ID Party events.[65][66]
In October 2023, then-ID Party hosted a gathering in Rome with representatives of Fidesz, the U.S. Republican Party, the Polish National Movement and the Israeli Likud.[67]
On 13 October 2023, Europe Elects revealed SOS Romania's intention to join the ID Group as well, although the party did not join any group in the European Parliament in the end.[68] On 30 October 2023, the Croatian Homeland Movement also expressed openness to joining ID, following a meeting with leading figures within ID, though it ultimately joined European Conservatives and Reformists in July 2024.[69]
In November 2023, ID member parties, along with Fidesz and Vox, participated in a conference hosted by the Serbian People's Party (SNP).[70] A politician from the Serbian People's Party, Jovan Palalić, was later interviewed by the ID Foundation,[71] stating that the SNP "works with the parties in the Identity and Democracy bloc".[72]
↑ The number of MEPs listed below may not match the total number of MEPs of the European party, as it does not include MEPs who join as individual members.
↑ Volya was removed from the list of member parties on the ID Party website in 2022.
↑ Revival was removed from the list of member parties on the ID Party website in 2024.
The National Rally, known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018, is a French far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and nationalist. It is the single largest parliamentary opposition party in the National Assembly since 2022. Its candidate was defeated in the second round in the 2002, 2017 and 2022 presidential elections. It opposes immigration, advocating significant cuts to legal immigration, protection of French identity, and stricter control of illegal immigration. The party advocates a "more balanced" and "independent" French foreign policy, opposing French military intervention in Africa while supporting France leaving NATO's integrated command. It also supports reform of the European Union (EU) and its related organisations as well as economic interventionism, protectionism, and zero tolerance for breaches of law and order.
Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán.
European nationalism is a form of pan-nationalism based on a pan-European identity. It is considered minor since the National Party of Europe disintegrated in the 1970s.
Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty was a far-right political group that operated in the European Parliament between January and November 2007. It was composed of 23 MEPs and only existed during the European Parliament's 6th term. While a common political charter for the ITS was signed on 9 January 2007, the ITS was recognised as a political group on 15 January by parliamentary president Josep Borrell.
Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) was a far-right, Eurosceptic political group that operated in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. It was composed of 34 MEPs and it existed during the European Parliament's 7th and 8th terms. After 2011, EFD had a loose relationship with the Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy political party.
The European Conservatives and Reformists Group is a soft Eurosceptic, anti-federalist political group of the European Parliament. The ECR is the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party European political party, but also includes MEPs from other European parties and MEPs without European party affiliation.
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The European Alliance for Freedom (EAF) was a pan-European political party of right-wing Eurosceptics. It was founded in late 2010, the party was recognised by the European Parliament in 2011. It did not seek registration as a political party with the new Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations in 2016 and was dissolved in the following.
Alternative for Germany is a far-right and right-wing populist political party in Germany. The AfD is Eurosceptic, and opposes immigration to Germany – especially of Muslims. The German judiciary has classified the party as a "suspected extremist" party, although it does not reject democracy.
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Theresa Reintke is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament from Germany since 2014. She is co-president of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. She is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens, part of The Greens–European Free Alliance. From 2011 to 2013 she was the spokesperson of the Federation of Young European Greens.
Freedom and Direct Democracy is a political party in the Czech Republic. It is led by Tomio Okamura and it holds 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
Europe of Nations and Freedom was a far-right political group that operated in the European Parliament between 2015 and 2019. It was composed of 37 MEPs and only existed during the European Parliament's 8th term. Most of its MPs were members of the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom political party.
Marco Zanni is an Italian politician who has presided over the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament since 2019. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2014, first elected as a member of the Five Star Movement, then reelected for the League in 2019.
The Movement is a Brussels-based right-wing populist organization founded by Steve Bannon of the United States to promote right-wing populist and economic nationalist groups in Europe that are opposed to the European Union governments and political structures of Europe. The organization was expected to hire 10 full-time staff in Brussels before the 2019 European Parliament election. In January 2017, Mischaël Modrikamen, leader of the People's Party in Belgium, officially registered the group.
Identity and Democracy was a far-right political group of the European Parliament, launched on 13 June 2019 for the Ninth European Parliament term. It comprised far right, right-wing populist, Eurosceptic and nationalist national parties from six European states. It was the successor to the Europe of Nations and Freedom group formed during the eighth term and almost all of its members merged into the Patriots for Europe group formed during the tenth term.
The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first European Parliament election after Brexit. A total of 720 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent more than 450 million people from 27 member states. This election also coincided with a number of other elections in some European Union member states.
Europe of Sovereign Nations, also known as the Sovereigntists, is a far-right political group in the European Parliament, formed on 10 July 2024 as the smallest group ahead of the 10th European Parliament. Its members previously belonged to the Identity and Democracy group or were non-attached.
The Voice of Reason is a far-right, ultranationalist political party in Greece. It was established in 2023 by Afroditi Latinopoulou, a lawyer and former tennis athlete.
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References
1 2 3 4 Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "European Union". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
↑ "The EU is frozen until September, unless…". Politico. 2 August 2024. The Authority for European Political Parties told POLITICO it has received new statutes for the Identity and Democracy (ID) party, which includes a change of name. The political group Patriots for Europe has taken over many former ID members, and has already rebranded the party's social media to Patriots.eu, my colleague Eddy reported today.
↑ "EU hails historic prisoner swap". Politico. 2 August 2024. The far-right Identity & Democracy Party — a pan-EU umbrella structure that has national parties like Portugal's Chega as members — has rebranded as Patriots.eu, following the creation of its Patriots for Europe grouping in the European Parliament.
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