European right wing populist parties from four countries have unveiled plans to form a pan-European “patriotic” party. The heads of parties from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and France said their aim was to defend Europe against “Islamisation” and immigrants.
At a news conference in Vienna, they said they expected to launch the party by 15 November. The move comes several months after the collapse of a right wing bloc in the European Parliament.
The Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS) bloc disbanded itself in November after a row between its Italian and Romanian members, which saw Alessandria Mussolini (the grand daughter of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini) accuse all Romanians of being criminals after Gypsies from Romania carried out several high profile criminal acts in Italy.
In Vienna, the heads of Austria’s Freedom Party, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, Bulgaria’s Ataka and the French National Front said the new party would be a counter-balance to other political forces in Europe.
“We say: Patriots of all the countries of Europe, unite! Because only together will we solve our problems,” Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said. “Irresponsible mass immigration to Europe from outside Europe due to irresponsible politicians… is the problem,” he said.
The far-right leaders need support from seven EU parties to launch the group, but Strache said that the goal was to have “more than 10 parties as members and ideally one party from each EU country”.
The new party has no name yet, but Strache said European Patriotic Party or European Freedom Party were working titles.
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