Former far-right political group of the European Parliament
Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF ; French:Europe des nations et des libertés ,ENL ) was afar-right [ 21] [ 22] [ 23] [ 24] political group that operated in theEuropean Parliament between 2015 and 2019. It was composed of 37MEPs and only existed during theEuropean Parliament's 8th term . Most of its MPs were members of theMovement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom political party.
Ideologically, ENF wasright-wing populist andEurosceptic . Its members included far-right parties such as FrenchNational Front (known as National Rally after 2018), ItalianLega Nord , DutchParty for Freedom , andVlaams Belang . After the2019 European Parliament election , ENF was transformed into theIdentity and Democracy group.[ 25]
Following the2014 European elections on 22–25 May 2014, theEuropean Alliance for Freedom (EAF), comprisingfar-right parties from across Europe, aimed to form a stable parliamentary group in the European Parliament prior to the start of the8th term . A previous attempt to create a far-right group in the European Parliament during the6th term was the short-livedIdentity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS) group in 2007.[ 26]
On 28 May 2014, it was announced at a press conference inBrussels that the alliance led byMarine Le Pen of the FrenchNational Front (FN) andGeert Wilders of the DutchParty for Freedom (PVV), includingNorthern League (LN) leaderMatteo Salvini , were in negotiations to create a parliamentary group.[ 27] Non-Inscrits [ 28] [ 29] Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom (MENL), without the participation of the PVV.[ 30]
On 15 June 2015, Marine Le Pen announced that a new group in the European Parliament would be launched the following day, set to comprise MEPs from the FN, PVV, LN, theFreedom Party of Austria (FPÖ),Flemish Interest (VB),[ 18] [ 31] [ 32] Congress of the New Right (KNP) and formerUK Independence Party memberJanice Atkinson .[ 33] Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended by his own National Front, whileJanusz Korwin-Mikke 's departure from the KNP allowed Marine Le Pen and Wilders to accept the two remaining members of the party in their group, something they had rejected during the discussions held in June 2014.[ 34] [ 35] Bruno Gollnisch chose not to join in solidarity with former president Jean-Marie Le Pen, whileAymeric Chauprade , on a trip toFiji ,[ 34] [ 36] won by the PVV was vacant at the time of the group's creation until 8 September 2015, whenAuke Zijlstra replacedHans Jansen , who had died on 5 May 2015.[ 37]
In July 2015, theEuropean Parliament decided the group would earn €3 million per year from EU funds.[ 38] [ 39] Ukraine-EU Association Agreement ), Hungary's Political Capital Institute found that future members of the ENF voted "no" in 93% of cases.[ 40] [relevant? The first convention of the ENL took place on 28 and 29 January 2016 in Milan with all the leaders of ENL's member parties along withFreedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) leaderTomio Okamura , whose party was not a member of the ENL as it had no MEPs. During this convention, each leader made a speech followed by a press conference the next day.[ 41] Alternative for Germany (AfD) party convention on 30 April 2016, it was announced thatMarcus Pretzell MEP would join the ENL group.[ 42] Beatrix von Storch joined theEurope of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group in March 2016, both MEPs having been expelled from the ECR group.[ 43]
On 15 July 2015, Romanian MEPLaurențiu Rebega left both theConservative Party and theS&D group to join the ENF.[ 44] Aymeric Chauprade left the group.[ 45] Laurențiu Rebega left the group. In May 2018, another MEP,Bernard Monot , left the Front National to join the EFDD group.[ 46] UK Independence Party MEPs joined the group.[ 47] [ 48]
On 12 June 2019, following the2019 European Parliament elections , the successor group to ENF was announced asIdentity and Democracy group, to be launched the following day.[ 49] [ 50]
Member parties before being dissolved [ edit ] The ENF group had members from eight countries.[ 51] [ 52]
Country Name Ideology EU party MEPs Notes Austria Freedom Party of Austria FPÖ National conservatism Right-wing populism MENF [ 53] Franz Obermayr ,Georg Mayer ,Harald Vilimsky ,Barbara Kappel Belgium Vlaams Belang VB Flemish nationalism Right-wing populism Gerolf Annemans France National Rally RN French nationalism Right-wing populism Marie-Christine Arnautu ,Nicolas Bay ,Dominique Bilde ,Marie-Christine Boutonnet ,Steeve Briois ,Jacques Colombier ,Jean-François Jalkh ,France Jamet ,Gilles Lebreton ,Christelle Lechevalier ,Philippe Loiseau ,[ 54] [ 55] Dominique Martin ,Joëlle Mélin ,Jean-Luc Schaffhauser ,Mylène Troszczynski Germany The Blue Party BP National conservatism Economic liberalism Marcus Pretzell Italy Lega Nord LN Nationalism Right-wing populism Mara Bizzotto ,Mario Borghezio ,Angelo Ciocca ,Giancarlo Scottà ,[ 56] Marco Zanni ,[ 57] Danilo Oscar Lancini Netherlands Party for Freedom PVV Dutch nationalism Right-wing populism None Marcel de Graaff ,André Elissen ,[ 58] Olaf Stuger ,Auke Zijlstra [ 59] Poland Congress of the New Right KNP Libertarian conservatism Right-wing populism EAF (Marusik)[ 60] Michał Marusik ,Stanisław Żółtek United Kingdom UK Independence Party UKIP Right-wing populism British nationalism None Gerard Batten ,Stuart Agnew
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