Viktor Orbán’s nationalist 'Patriots for Europe' group has been officially established in the European Parliament today, boasting 84 MEPs making it the third-largest group in the hemicycle.
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00:00Victor Orban's far-right group has officially been established in the European Parliament.
00:10The Patriots for Europe has been joined by two significant parties, Matteo Salvini's
00:15League Party and Marine Le Pen's National Rally.
00:20Its president will be Jordan Bardella, who was not present in Brussels when the group
00:24formed.
00:26We started working together with colleagues who are able to take a firm stand against
00:33the harmful, centralising decisions of the Brussels bureaucrats that divide the nation-states.
00:39Our long-term goal is to change the European Union policy-making.
00:45Our new group will work to preserve Europe's Judeo-Christian roots, will strive for the
00:51strongest protection of Europe's external borders, will firmly say no to illegal migration
00:58and will work for a strong and competitive Europe.
01:02Patriots for Europe replaces the Identity and Democracy group in wanting to influence
01:07EU policies by proposing to adapt a hard-line stance on irregular migration, reverse the
01:13Green Deal and defend the right of Member States to veto decisions.
01:18Its members are potentially divided over the war in Ukraine, which some parties support
01:22and others do not.
01:24We as a Dutch delegation, we will keep supporting Ukraine as long as there is war, but every
01:31other delegation may do so, may not do so.
01:37We're here as a group, claiming peace.
01:43With 84 MEPs coming from 12 EU Member States, Patriots is now the third largest group in
01:50the European Parliament, overtaking the European Conservative and Reformists.
01:55Other national delegations include members from Austria's far-right Freedom Party and
01:59Spain's Vox Party.
02:01I would overturn the approach because, given that the consensus of this group has shifted
02:07at the electoral level and given that many parties are interested in this project, now
02:13we take a moment to calculate, we start making Patriots, more Conservatives, you will see
02:20that we get a number that is very close, if not higher, even than that of the Popular
02:25Party.
02:28The party has helped Orban achieve his goal of becoming the third largest force in the
02:32European Parliament.
02:33It is not impossible for this group to expand further.