Orbán already had enough MEPs. And now the alliance’s right-wing parties from Hungary, Austria, Portugal and the Czech Republic are being joined by groups from Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands.
“The Patriots for Europe keeps growing with the latest addition, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang,” Zoltán Kovács, Orbán’s international spokesman, tweeted late Saturday.
“As right-wing, patriotic and nationalist parties, we stand strong together in Europe,” Vlaams Belang Chairman Tom Van Grieken said in a statement. “We have more in common than what divides us.”
The leader of Spain’s Vox party, Santiago Abascal, told La Gaceta on Friday that his party would join Orbán’s alliance, withdrawing from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists. The Netherlands’ Geert Wilders said his Party for Freedom wanted to join the Patriots for Europe to “protect our Judeo-Christian heritage. And our families.”
Barbara Moen and Karl Mathiesen contributed reporting.