The leaders of three major populist and nationalist parties of Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republicled by the Magyar prime minister, the ultra Viktor Orbánannounced this Sunday in Vienna the creation of a new far-right faction in the European Parliament.

“The objective is that this group will soon be the strongest right-wing party in the European Parliament“said the Hungarian president, whose country assumes the rotating presidency of the European Council starting Monday. The new faction, which still needs the accession of at least four other parties, will be called ‘Patriots for Europe’ and the three founding groups are the ruling Hungarian party Fidesz, the opposition Austrian liberal party FPÖ and the Czech opposition party ‘Alliance of Dissatisfied Citizens’ (ANO).

The three parties, which focus their policy on stopping immigration in Europe, were the winners of the recent European elections in their respective countries. In addition to a restrictive immigration policy, the three defend lifting the future European ban on vehicles with combustion engines, in addition to reviewing the so-called “green new pact” for the ecological transformation of the European economy.

Together with Orbán, they signed the call “patriotic manifesto“the leader of the FPÖ, Herbert Kickland ANO leader and former Czech Prime Minister, tycoon Andrej BabisAll three stressed that the aim of their announcement is to become a “carrier rocket” to motivate other European formations to take up their cause.

Third party of the extreme right

In their presentation to the press in Vienna, in which questions from reporters were allowed, the three leaders did not want to specify with which other European national parties they are negotiating the formation of this faction. If successful, Patriots for Europe would be the third faction with a radical right orientation, along with Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).

The three parties meeting today have together 24 MEPsthat is, one more than the minimum of 23 to create a faction in the European Parliament, although they still need at least four other parties to join in order to formalize this parliamentary alliance.

Kickl, who leads the polls in Austria, with 27% of voting intentions ahead of the general elections on September 29, highlighted that from now on “all political forces that wish to be included in this positive reform effort, will be welcome.” “From what I’ve heard in the last few days, there will be more (supports) than some probably picture right now,” the far-right leader said cryptically, without providing further details.