Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has formed a new EU parliamentary group with a range of smaller parties, with the new group known as the “Europe of Sovereign Nations.” It will feature 25 MEPs in total, with the AfD making up more than 50 percent of the new EU grouping.
With the AfD boasting 14 of the party’s members, it will be the dominant party within the grouping, but due to the wide range of countries joining the group, often only featuring one MEP, the new grouping meets the criteria for forming a new EU parliamentary bloc, which is 23 MEPs from at least seven countries.
“We have joined forces because we are united in the goal of exerting a decisive influence on Europe’s political future through decisive action and a planned approach,” the new group’s co-president, René Aust (AfD), said after the founding meeting.
Notably, the AfD’s lead EU parliament candidate, Maximilian Krah, will still be excluded from the group.
One of the most high-profile parties is France’s Reconquête, which earned 5.5 percent of the vote during EU elections. Although the party sent five MEPs to Brussels, infighting within the party during national elections last month saw party leader Éric Zemmour expelling four of them, which means the AfD will only have one MEP from the French party in its grouping. It is possible, however, that the remaining four MEPs join the new grouping, which could bring its number up to 29.
Also in the group is the Polish Confederation party, however, as Remix News reported, the decision to join the AfD sparked internal battles within the party, with half of the MEPs joining the new “Europe of Sovereign Nations,” while two others joined the newly formed “Patriots for Europe” grouping, which is now the third-largest EU grouping in the parliament.
Some of the other parties in the AfD’s new grouping include Se Acabó La Fiesta from Spain, SPD from Czechia, Republika from Slovakia, and Our Homeland from Hungary.
The group’s manifesto is focused against the “Islamization of Europe,” the Green Deal, and mass immigration, said the leader of the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD), Tomio Okamura.
Who was excluded?
Notably, Polish MEP Grzegorz Braun and Slovak MEP Milan Mazurek were excluded from the group at the behest of the AfD, which reportedly took issue with their past comments “trivializing the Holocaust.”
At the same time, Confederation and Reconquête requested Krah be kept out of the group due to his comments about SS soldiers, which as Remix News has reported in the past, have been grossly distorted by not only the press, but also many in the conservative movement.
Forming its own EU parliamentary bloc may not have been the AfD’s first choice, but reportedly the AfD was blocked from joining the newly formed Patriots for Europe group in the EU parliament. Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party pushed the AfD out of Identity and Democracy (ID) shortly before the ID group was dissolved. She has since joined up with the Patriots for Europe but allegedly under the condition that the AfD is not allowed to join.
EU groups have a number of procedural privileges within the EU parliament, including financial subsidies and extra staff, as well as the right of group spokespeople to speak first in debates, along with several other perks.
