Earlier reports in the German and international press indicating that Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) was ready to formally launch a new European parliamentary group named “The Sovereignists” this Thursday (June 27th) were mistaken and a result of an unauthorized leak from within the German delegation, The European Conservative has learned from a senior party official close to the negotiations.
As we also wrote based on an initial report from Der Spiegel a few days ago, the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) appeared to be ready to move on from trying to re-enter the French National Rally (RN)-led identity and Democracy (ID) group in Brussels. Instead, it was preparing to launch its own group after teaming up with smaller, non-aligned right-wing parties on the fringes.
The list of parties most likely to be part of the new group—named ‘The Sovereignists,’ but unofficially referred to as the ‘Hooligans’—included the Polish Konfederacja, the Spanish SALF, the Bulgarian Revival, the Slovak Republika, the Greek NIKH, the Hungarian Our Homeland, and SOS Romania. Together these parties would have 34 seats, comfortably above the threshold needed to form a new political family in Brussels.
Contrary to the initial information, however, a senior AfD official told us that nothing is set in stone yet, and no formal launch can be expected this week, and probably not until the deadline in mid-July. Furthermore, according to our source, the list of prospective allies was leaked to Der Spiegel behind the back of the party’s leadership.
“The AfD did not appreciate that an assistant close to the negotiations published the list of possible delegations to the German press,” he said, explaining that several of those parties are still being screened by AfD on whether they would make suitable members for a new group. Three delegations (Republika, Our Homeland, and SOS Romania) still need to be checked for their past incidents of alleged Holocaust denial, the official said.
“No decision on this Thursday, as falsely announced,” he concluded. “But we have time until July 15th to form a group.”
The deadline refers to the coming plenary session in Strasbourg, starting on July 16th, which will mark the official inauguration of the new Parliament that is also supposed to vote on the EU top job nominees put forward by the European Council. Understandably, any parliamentary reshuffle needs to take place before that date.
The reason for taking their time with the new group is that the majority of AfD’s leadership would still rather get back into the much more powerful ID than create a new group with ‘misfits’ who are deemed too extreme to enter either national conservative blocs.
“I’m really upset to see the ‘Hooligan’ group become a reality,” the official said, explaining that many in AfD share his view and treat The Sovereignists as a last resort plan only. Accordingly, the current consensus is that Maximilian Krah—the MEP, whose remarks prompted Le Pen to suspend AfD’s membership in ID—will not come back to Brussels.
If they could convince Marine Le Pen—and also Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, who is also in negotiations with the French party leader—to let go of their “fatwa” against this more moderate AfD without Krah, the official explained, the ID group (including AfD, Fidesz, and a few others) might even overtake Meloni’s ECR as the third largest group in the Parliament.
“That’s the idea, but we need to wait until July 7th, the second round of the French elections,” he added, saying that the French are too busy with their election but signaled readiness to talk afterward. “I just got confirmation that we can take back the discussion then.”
Technically, this means that AfD will have only a few days to convince the French about their usefulness before the Parliament reconvenes and a tight schedule does not usually serve high-stakes negotiations well. Not to say it is not worth trying to achieve their dream outcome at the very last minute.
