Hungary’s Orban announces moves to form new EU parliament group

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday announced he wanted to form a new EU parliament alliance, together with Austria’s far-right party and the Czech centrist group of ex-premier Andrej Babis.

“We take on the responsibility to launch this new platform and new faction. I want to make it clear that this is our goal,” the nationalist premier told reporters at a joint press conference with Austria’s Freedom Party (FPOe) leader Herbert Kickl and Babis of ANO, calling for other parties’ support.

The new alliance, presented as “Patriots for Europe,” will need support from parties from four other countries to be recognized as a group in the EU parliament.

“A new era begins here, and the first, perhaps decisive moment of this new era is the creation of a new European political faction that will change European politics,” Orban said.

The three men signed a “patriotic manifesto,” promising “peace, security and development” instead of the “war, migration and stagnation” brought by the “Brussels elite,” according to Orban.

Hungary on Monday takes on the rotating six-month EU presidency.

Under the presidency, the central European country has vowed to push for a “strong European policy” under the motto “Make Europe Great Again,” a nod to Orban’s “good friend” former US president Donald Trump.

Orban’s Fidesz was a member of the center-right European People’s Party — the European Parliament’s biggest group — until it quit in 2021 amid wrangling over accusations of Hungary’s democratic backsliding.

Kickl’s FPOe is part of the Identity and Democracy grouping, which also includes France’s National Rally and Italy’s League.

The centrist ANO movement of billionaire former prime minister and eurosceptic Babis announced last week it was leaving Renew Europe.

The FPOe now has six MEPs, ANO seven and Fidesz 11, with all three parties strongest in their countries in EU elections in early June.