Jordan Bardella to chair new nationalist group initiated by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

The National Rally joins the new far-right group Patriots for Europe, which becomes the third force in the European Parliament.

The leader of the National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, will chair the new far-right group Patriots for Europe in the European Parliament, Zoltan Kovacs, a member of the Hungarian government, announced on X on Monday, July 8. Initiated by the Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, this group will bring together 84 deputies from 13 different parties. The 30 elected representatives from the RN will represent its largest delegation in terms of numbers.

Viktor Orban had revealed on June 30 his intention to form this group, in concert with the Austrian far-right party FPÖ and the movement of the former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis. He shows the ambition to make a different voice heard, in particular against military support for Ukraine, against “illegal immigration” and in favor of the “traditional family”.

Matteo Salvini’s League, the Party for Freedom (PVV) of the Dutch Geert Wilders, the Portuguese movement Chega, the Spanish VOX, as well as the Danish People’s Party and the Flemish far-right independence party Vlaams Belang, have also joined Patriots for Europe. The pFar-right artists have made slight progress after the European elections of June 9.

The former Identity and Democracy group, in which The RN group will therefore disappear, while Patriots for Europe will become the third group in the European Parliament, behind the European People’s Party (centre-right) and the Social Democrats. It will distance itself from its far-right competitor, the Conservatives and Reformists group, which includes the elected representatives of the head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni. The European deputies will meet for the first time of the new mandate on July 16 in Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin).