Patriots become the third largest force in the EP: Vannacci deputy and ID no longer has the numbers

The constitutive meeting of the new ‘Patriots for Europe‘ group in the European Parliament has just concluded. After this morning’s confirmations of the entry of Matteo Salvini’s Lega and, yesterday – after the announcement of the legislative election results – of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, which obtained 143 MEPs in the National Assembly, the group now totals 84 MEPs, making it the third force in the Euro Chamber, behind the Popular and Socialists.

The Patriots’ Numbers

The Group of Patriots for Europe is composed of: – Rassemblement National (France): 30 MEPs – Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People’s Party (Hungary): 11 – Lega (Italy): 8 – ANO (Czech Republic): 7 – Oath and Motorists (Czech Republic) 2 – FPÖ (Austria): 6 – PVV (Netherlands): 6 – VOX (Spain): 6 – Vlaams Belang (Flanders, Belgium): 3 – CHEGA (Portugal): 2 – Danish People’s Party (Denmark): 1 – The Voice of Reason (Greece): 1 – Latvia First (Latvia): 1.

The League passes to the Patriots officially

“The people of Europe have shown that they want a radical change in Brussels against the excessive power of bureaucrats and bankers, finally overcoming the disastrous model of the last five years based on pro-Islamic, pro-Chinese and eco-extremist choices with leftists and socialists. Today a large group of patriots is finally born to change the future of this Europe. The League is there’. This was written on social media by the leader of the League and deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, formalising the passage of his 8 MEPs, currently inside Identity and Democracy to the Patriots.

Patriots: Bardella group leader and Vannacci vice-president

Meanwhile, the Rassemblement National’s premier candidate, Jordan Bardella, was elected group leader of the Patriots for Europe, while the Lega Nord MEP, Roberto Vannacci, was elected vice president. There are 84 MEPs and 12 delegations.

Identity and Democracy no longer has the numbers

The Patriots came into being by ‘cannibalising’ mainly Identity and Democracy, even though they wrested an important piece from Ecr – the Party of European Conservatives and Reformists – the six MEPs from Vox as well.
The Identity and Democracy group, therefore, no longer has the numbers to constitute itself in the European Parliament, with its members sucked in, on the one hand, by the European Conservatives and Reformists and, on the other, by the new Patriots for Europe group.

Third group in Europe

According to the first estimates circulating here in Brussels, the new political faction is expected to be the third largest in the European Parliament, ahead of the conservatives of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The latter lost the Vox party, and now have 78 seats (compared to 69 in the previous legislature).

Eric Maurice, a researcher at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, comments: “The Liberals come out badly: the two right-wing groups have overtaken them in terms of seats (Renew has 76 MEPs, ed.). We will have to see if and how much conservatives and nationalists will want to cooperate more than they did in the previous legislature, especially at the level of parliamentary committees’. Identity & Democracy had 49 MPs at the end of the previous legislature.