French National Front leader Marine Le Pen has failed to form an extreme-right political group in the European Parliament aimed at sabotaging the EU from inside.
Le Pen and Geert Wilders, the extreme-right leader from Holland, were unable to meet the minimum parliament criteria of having 25 members from at least seven different member states.
“Unfortunately we didn't meet the June 24 deadline to form an official grouping with six other parties in the European parliament,” Wilders said.
In May, Le Pen announced that her National Front party of 24 MEPs would team up with allies from the Wilders’ Freedom party, Austria’s Freedom party, Italy’s Lega Nord, and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang.
She wanted to create a group called the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF) in order to obstruct policy making at the European Parliament in a wider effort to repatriate national sovereignty.
A parliament group means more money and more influence in the EU parliament.
But Wilders refused to collaborate with a new party of the extreme right in Poland, viewed as anti-Semitic 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.
Wilders had also floated the idea of possibly forming a group with British Ukip eurosceptic leader Nigel Farage but the latter said he would never team up with Le Pen’s party which he called ‘’anti-Semitic.’’
Farage instead managed to form his 48-member Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFD) group last week.
Following the May EU elections, seven political groups have been recognized as fulfilling the criteria. In the 751-member new European Parliament, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) remains the largest group with 221 members followed by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D, 191 members), the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR,70 members), the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE,67 members), the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL, 52 members), the Greens/European Free Alliances (Greens/EFA,50 members) and the Europe of Freedom and irect Democracy (EFD,48 members).
On Tuesday, German Social-Democrat Martin Schulz was reelected as President of the parliament.