Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has revealed a plan for how the Patriots for Europe faction he created in the summer will be able to build a close coalition with the European Conservatives and Reformists, and in the future, lure some parties from the European People’s Party, thus becoming the largest force in European Parliament.
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Earlier, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that she intended to resign as chairman of the European Reformists and Conservatives (ERC) faction. Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed his intention to lead the faction after its departure.
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“We have had close, deep and friendly cooperation with Morawiecki for decades. I talked to him after that. “Patriots” and “conservatives” have different flocks, these are two different party groups. On the most important issues, despite the differences, both party groups We agree. In the coming period, the number of initiatives common to both party groups will increase. We do not hide our intention to create structured, well-structured institutional cooperation between the groups in the longer term,” Orbán said at a press conference.
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According to him, for such cooperation “there are several opportunities in European politics” and the leadership of both groups “strives for this,” and when the coalition takes shape, the moment will come to “pop the champagne.”
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“If the third and fourth largest factions can build sustainable cooperation, we will overtake the socialists and become the second largest in the European Parliament. And after that, when we grow up and our attraction intensifies, this will create a magnetic force, we will accept parties from the European People’s Party and become the largest. This is the plan,” Orban said.
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Earlier, the head of the Austrian Freedom Party (APS) Herbert Kickl, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who heads the Fidesz party, and the head of the Czech ANO party, ex-Prime Minister Andrej Babis, announced at a press conference in Vienna the formation of a political alliance in the European Parliament. In total, at the time of the official creation of the faction, it included 84 deputies from 14 parties representing 12 countries. Orban noted in the summer that the faction intends to enter into alliances with other parties and become the second largest in the European Parliament.
