Humiliated French Far Right Helps 'Patriots for Europe' Become Major Parliamentary Bloc

Dozens of members of French legislator Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally—which suffered a crushing defeat at the polls on Sunday—are joining forces with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to form what will be the third-largest bloc in the European Parliament.

Politico reported Monday that 30 members of Le Pen's National Rally (RN) who belonged to the far-right Identity and Democracy bloc are joining Patriots for Europe, which was formed in June by conservative lawmakers including European Parliament members (MEPs) from Orbán's ruling Fidesz party.

Jordan Bardella—the 28-year-old RN MEP who was widely believed to be the frontrunner for French prime minister before his party's thrashing in a national election on Sunday—will serve as the Patriots for Europe's leader in Strasbourg. Patriots for Europe has 84 MEPs representing 12 European Union member states.

"As patriotic forces, we are going to work together in order to retake our institutions and reorient policies to serve our nations and peoples," Bardella said in a statement Monday.

As Euronews reported:

Other national [Patriots for Europe] delegations include Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ), Spain's far-right Vox, and the Dutch nationalist PVV, each contributing six MEPs. The group also includes three lawmakers from Belgium's Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang, two from Portugal's Chega!, two from Czechia's Oath and Motorists, two from Greece's Voice of Reason, one from Latvia First party, and one from the Danish People's Party.

Renew Europe, a centrist bloc with 76 European Parliament members, reacted to the new far-right alliance in a social mediapost asserting that "Patriots for Europe are 'patriots' in name only."

"The far right have rebranded. But their mission is the same, to destroy values," Renew Europe added. "Shame on them for supporting the narratives of Europe's enemies."

Commenting on a photo of Patriots for Europe MEPs posted on social media, Irish defense and security analyst Andy Scollick said: "What do neo-Nazis, fascists, and sycophantic authoritarian bootlickers look like in the European Parliament? This."

"Nothing patriotic about them: They would see Europe under the Russian yoke if they got their way," he added. "#PatriotsforEurope = #TraitorsforEurope."