Populist Leaders To Meet With Aim Of Forming New Political Group

Office of the Hungarian PM's website has issued a statement confirming a meeting between PM Viktor Orban, his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki, and head of Italy's right-wing populist League Matteo Salvini in Budapest on Thursday.

• A section of the statement reads: "The agenda of the meeting includes a political alliance between the League, led by Mateusz Morawiecki, Law and Justice (PiS) and Fidesz at European level. In early March, Matteo Salvini had already had a video consultation with Viktor Orbán on vaccination, post-epidemic economic recovery, migration and family policy, among others."
• There has been a strong likelihood of a new political group being formed at the EU level ever since Orban's Fidesz party left the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) earlier in March.
  • At present, Salvini's League is the largest single party in the right-wing populist Identity and Democracy (ID) group, which also contains the National Rally of Marine Le Pen from France and Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom from the Netherlands.
  • Morawiecki comes from the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), which is the largest single party in the conservative European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, also home to Spain's right-wing VOX party, the Sweden Democrats, and prior to Brexit UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives.
• Losing the League and PiS would deal a significant blow to both the ECR and ID. They would still cross the threshold required to be recognised as an official group in the European Parliament (having 25 MEPs from at least one-quarter of EU member states), but would lose significant speaking time in Parliament and access to senior committee seats.
• Given the rules on forming official groups in the European Parliament, Orban, Salvini and Morawiecki will have to attract MEPs from at least four other countries to join any prospective group in order to clear the threshold, even though together they have 64 MEPs.
• Nevertheless, an official union between three of Europe's most successful and vociferous populist parties will cause some concern in Brussels should the movement be able to unite populist and right-wing parties from across the continent, something previously not possible.