Days after her electoral victory in France, extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen said she was confident of forming a new anti-EU group in the European Parliament with other extreme-right parties in Europe that would boost both her political influence and financial clout.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels – amid demonstration against er presence- Le Pen, whose National Front party garnered 25 % of the vote in France and became the first party - said : "We aren't worried in the least about the future existence of our group.’’
However, so far only four parties in Europe have joined her, short of the seven-nation representation required under EU rules to be considered a group in the EU parliament : Belgium's far-right Vlaams Belang (VB), the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) and Italy's Lega Nord.
Le Pen’s ally from Holland Geert Wilders of the anti-Islam anti-immigrant PVV said he was "very confident that maybe not tomorrow but in the next few weeks" the five far-right parties would find the extra two allies needed.
A group must have at least 25 MEPs.
One of Le Pen’s potential ally, Britain’s eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) led by Nigel Farage has so far refused to come into an alliance with the National Front saying it had "anti-Semitism and general prejudice in its DNA".
Farage, who won 24 seats in the European Parliament, currently heads the parliament’s Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group. But some of his allies have lost seats, meaning he too may be unable to meet the seven-nation threshold.
Her Dutch ally Geert Wilders of the anti-Islam anti-immigrant PVV said he was "very confident that maybe not
If officially recognised as a group, the National Front and its allies would win the right to express an opinion on any issue raised in plenary session and take the presidency of any of the parliament's 20 committees and two sub-committees.
Riot police were called to the European Parliament after leftist demonstrators attempted to enter the building to protest against the presence of Marine Le Pen, shouting ‘’fascists in jail.’’