The Vox delegation in the European Parliament has announced that it will will change groups in the European Parliament and will leave the Conservatives and Reformists, where he shared ranks with Brothers of Italy or the Polish Law and Justice, to join the “Patriots for Europe”, the initiative that is being promoted by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.

“This new platform aims to form a new parliamentary group in the European Parliament, whose constitution and composition will likely be announced in the coming days,” the statement said. party in a statement.

He also added that “the patriotic forces that have increased their presence in the European Parliament They have a historic opportunity to materialize the voters’ request in a large group that will establish itself as an alternative to the coalition of the Popular Party, the Socialists and the extreme left.”

Vox This will add six seats to Orbán’s initiative.the Austrian FPÖ and the Czech ANO to form a new group in the European Parliament, which the Portuguese far-right Chega! has also announced its intention to join. They need 23 seats from seven different nationalities to form a parliamentary group.

Patriots for Europe responds “to the message of those Europeans who demand a radical and urgent change of direction for the EU,” says the text, which thanks the Conservatives and Reformists and “especially” Meloni’s Brothers of Italy for their support. “very close collaboration” that they have had during the last legislative period.

Vox’s announcement coincides with Orbán’s trip to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, a move that has angered Hungary’s European partners, and comes just days before the Patriots for Europe party holds its founding meeting in the European Parliament on Monday.

Sources from the Conservatives and Reformists confirmed to EFE that Vox participated normally at the group’s founding meeting this week, which was held in a hybrid manner between Brussels and Sicily (Italy) and in which Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch was even appointed as one of the group’s vice-presidents.

With the departure of Vox, ECR remains the third largest group in the European Parliament with 78 seatsbut only two more than the liberals of Renew Europe, who have 76. In parallel, the Patriots for Europe would now have 31 seats and are two nationalities short of being officially constituted, but could absorb up to 49 MEPs from Identity and Democracy, the far-right group that is doomed to nominally disappear and be replaced by Orbán’s initiative.

This would potentially give them 80 seats, making them the third largest group in the European Parliament.

The remaining matches of group ID willand the 30 MEPs could feed the Patriots from the French National Rally, eight from the Italian League, six from the Dutch PVV, three from the Belgian Vlaams Belang, one from the Danes from DF and one from the Czechs from SPD. Not all of them have to do so, however, as they can also remain in the Non-Inscribed bench or look for a place in another political family.