VOX joining Orbán’s new EU group makes Spanish right ‘nervous’, says leader

4 months ago 19

The recent entry of the far-right VOX party into Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s new Patriots for Europe group has made many in the right-wing Partido Popular (EPP) and Alvise Pérez’s new ‘ultra’ force SALF nervous, warned VOX leader Santiago Abascal.

According to Abascal, the “exit” last Friday of VOX – which now has six MEPs – from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and its integration into Patriots for Europe is intended to contribute to “defending sovereignty and borders”.

“I see the satellites (political parties) of Génova (referring to the central Madrid street where the PP headquarters are located), synchronised opinion and the single (opinion) editorialists very nervous about the new European group (…)”, commented the controversial VOX leader, a close friend of Orbán and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Patriots for Europe “(…) will be the real opposition to the elites and the dominant tendency in Brussels, and we will not give in on anything”, Balász Orbán, a political advisor to the Hungarian prime minister, told Euractiv’s partner EFE on Friday.

“We are open to anyone who wants to work with a European approach, but based on patriotic feelings and opposed to the bad decisions of the last five years (in Brussels)”, he stressed.

Abascal lashed out at the right-wing media, which he accused of failing to report neutrally and transparently on the agreements that the PP group in the European Parliament (EPP) is currently negotiating with the Socialist Group in the European Parliament (PSOE/S&D).

“None of them (from the PP and the right-wing media) think of reporting that (PP leader Alberto Núñez) Feijóo is deceiving his voters, making a pact with the Socialists in (the European Parliament), legitimising the Spanish president Pedro Sánchez in Brussels and agreeing on the distribution of judges (in the controversial issue of the renewal of the judges’ body)…”, Abascal stressed on X.

Meanwhile, several VOX MEPs have defended the party’s decision to leave the ECR group despite it becoming the third-largest EU group in the European Parliament, ousting Renew Europe.

Rocío de Meer, VOX MEP for Almería, said the party had decided to leave the ECR group to defend better the interests of European “patriots” who “defend European nations”.

However, De Meer pointed out that VOX was “not abandoning anyone, but creating a large coalition of patriots to face the new challenges, which are the dissolution of borders and homelands”.

When asked about the fact that VOX’s move took place on the same day (Friday, 5 July) as Viktor Orbán’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, De Meer declined to comment directly, simply pointing out that Orbán is “a great ally of VOX and is well known by everyone in Spain.”

Socialists as the ‘last defence line’ against the far-right?

Meanwhile, speaking at a meeting of the Socialist International (SI) in Bucharest on Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister and PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez said the parties that make up this progressive grouping are the “last line of defence” against the far right while stressing that the best way to stop “ultra” forces in Europe is to govern and deal with the problems that affect citizens.

“There is no better antidote to reactionary populism than a government that deals with the real problems of our people. I believe this is the way to combat the frustration and anger that (the far right) feeds on,” Sánchez stressed, EFE reported.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)