German right to form new European alliance – media
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will meet with like-minded right-wingers in Strasbourg this week to form a new bloc in the European Parliament, German news magazine Der Spiegel has reported. According to the outlet, the new faction will champion national sovereignty and call for negotiations with Russia.
The AfD will host “the constitutive meeting of a new parliamentary group” in EU Parliament buildings on Thursday, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday, citing an email exchange between the party and the parliament’s administration.
According to the news site’s sources, the new group will be named ‘The Sovereignists’ and could include right-wing parties such as Bulgaria’s Vazrazhdane, Poland’s Konfederacja, Hungary’s Mi Hazank Mozgalom, Slovakia’s Hnutie Republika, Se Acabo La Fiesta from Spain, NIKH from Greece, and SOS Romania.
With more than 700 seats in the European Parliament, parties generally join blocs along ideological lines. Most right-wing parties are members of the Identity and Democracy (ID) or European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) blocs, which are dominated by France’s National Rally and Italy’s Brothers of Italy respectively.
The AfD was expelled from the ID faction before this month’s European elections, primarily over remarks by its lead candidate, Maximilian Krah, who told multiple news outlets that he didn’t believe every member of Adolf Hitler’s SS “was automatically a criminal.” National Rally leader Marine Le Pen was instrumental in the AfD’s expulsion, threatening to withdraw from the bloc unless Krah’s party was booted out.
As such, the AfD has been rendered powerless in the legislature, despite increasing its seats from 11 to 15.
The Sovereignists’ platform will reportedly be based on the ‘Sofia Declaration’, issued by Vazrazhdane in April. This manifesto states that European civilization is being “threatened by the aggression of globalist ideologies,” and labels the EU a “dictatorship of bureaucracy.” The document calls for peace talks to end the Ukraine conflict, and for the reformation of the EU as a looser union of “equal and sovereign states.”
In a statement after the AfD’s expulsion from the ID group, Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov offered to team up with the German rightists and form a “truly conservative and sovereignist” faction.
It is not yet clear who will lead the new group, although Krah and AfD lawmaker Rene Aust agreed in January that Aust would lead the party’s delegation in Strasbourg while Krah would serve as deputy leader. As the AfD will be the largest party in the Sovereignist bloc, Krah and Aust will likely occupy senior roles.
