European Alliance for Freedom

Farage’s EFDD group collapses

The Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group in the European Parliament, headed by UKIP leader Nigel Farage, has been disbanded following the defection of a Latvian MEP.

The EFDD has existed for three months, including the August break.

If the EFDD can find a new MEP from a country not already in the group, it could re-form. The UK, the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Lithuania and Sweden are already represented in the group.

If the group is unable to re-form it could create a vacuum for Le Pen to restart her efforts to create a group, which she had planned to name the the ‘European Alliance for Freedom’.

Other groups in the Parliament welcomed the development. Manfred Weber, the leader of the centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP), called it “the first defeat for Eurosceptics”

A spokesperson for the EFDD group did not return calls for comment. All staff working for the EFDD group will lose their jobs unless the group can re-form.

Parliamentary groups must have at least 25 MEPs from seven different member states in order to be officially recognised by the Parliament. Iveta Grigule was the only Latvian MEP in the group, and her departure means that the EFDD does not have representation from enough member states. The group’s dissolution was officially announced today at a meeting of the conference of presidents (the group leaders).

The group was formed by UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Farage in 2009 under the name Europe of Freedom and Democracy. Most of its MEPs came from UKIP, with a handful from six other countries. It managed to stay intact for the full 2009-14 term.

Facing competition from Marine Le Pen’s efforts to create a new right-wing group in the Parliament, UKIP joined forces with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement in Italy and changed the group’s name, adding the word ‘direct’. In the new configuration, the 17 Italian MEPs shared the spotlight with UKIP’s 24 MEPs, and it is now co-led by Farage and Five Star MEP David Borrelli.

Grigule’s office said they were not yet aware of the reason for the defection. It may be related to the government-formation process in Latvia. Grigule is from the Union of Greens and Farmers party and there are ongoing talks about who is joining the government. The EFDD is seen as being pro-Putin and her membership in it may not have been palatable in a domestic context.

Learn more about the Five Star – UKIP alliance in this video interview with MEP Fabio Massimo Castaldo.

“Radicals and populists are utterly divided,” he said on Twitter. “No constructive work for citizens. Good that EFDD is no longer playing an official role.”

Catherine Bearder, the one British Liberal Democrats MEP left in the European Parliament after the party lost 10 seats in this year’s election, said it was “not surprising that UKIP has lost friends and alienated people in the European Parliament.” She said the development will make Farage a backbench MEP in the European Parliament, much like Douglas Carswell, who for the first time won a seat for UKIP in the British Parliament last week.

“Just like his new MP, Nigel Farage will now have to shout from the back benches – that is if he actually bothers to turn up,” she said.

Source: European Voice

Marine Le Pen fails to form conservative group in EU parliament

Marine Le Pen has failed to find support in the minimum of seven European Union countries for her conservative group, the European Alliance for Freedom.

Le Pen and Geert Wilders of the Dutch Freedom Party did not gain enough allies to qualify as a single caucus in the new European parliament, which now denies them access to funding and extra speaking time. They would also not be able to serve on committees.

Following European parliamentary elections last month, won by Le Pen’s Front National, the various parties had until Monday midnights to form a group comprising at least 25 MEPs from at least seven countries.

The Le Pen-led grouping includes Wilders’ Freedom party, the Austrian Freedom Party, Italy’s Liga Nord and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang. Le Pen and Wilders easily easily exceeded the minimum seats required, the European Alliance for Freedom was two countries short of the required seven.

Wilders and Le Pen said they refused to collaborate with a new party of the extreme right in Poland, viewed as antisemitic but also certain to clash with Wilders’ and Le Pen’s views on immigration to their countries from eastern Europe.

The Polish New Right Congress – which advocates abolishing women’s voting rights – and the Lithuanian Order and Justice parties said they refused to join the Le Pen group.

The Lithuanian party preferred to join British Ukip leader Nigel Farage’s Europe of Freedom and Democracy parliamentary group.

Yesterday, the Front National declared that it failed to muster a full-sized European parliamentary group as it had not wanted to ally itself with parties demonstrating incompatible values.

Florian Philippot, the party’s vice-president, told the French radio station Europe 1: “We were several parties, but we needed to come from seven countries and this time it didn’t work.”

Philippot also said to Reuters: “We have no group, for the time being at least. But our deputies, who are more numerous than any other party in the French delegation, will be there to defend France under any circumstances, with or without a group.”

Ludovic de Danne, Le Pen’s European spokesman, tweeted: “Never mind the betrayals and media agitation. We and our allies will build a solid and coherent political group later.”

The new 751-seat European assembly sits for the first time next week.

Subsidies for political groups in the European parliament are substantial. The European Alliance for Freedom could have received up to €22m for operational expenses.

In its media release yesterday, the Front National stated:

“We regret it in the short term, but we take responsibility for our moral and political choice in the long term.

Convinced that it will be possible for us to form this group shortly, we are committed from the very first session in Strasbourg on 1 July to our struggle as patriots for our sovereignty, our identity and our liberty. We shall continue in parallel and with the greatest determination, our negotiations with several parties in Europe so as to constitute this greater formation in favour of sovereignty in the European parliament.”