This weekend, the Europa Viva 2025 gathering brought together two prominent voices of the European sovereigntist movement: Tom Vandendriessche, a Flemish MEP from Vlaams Belang, and Kinga Gál, vice president of the Patriots group in the European Parliament and member of Hungarian Fidesz. Both pointed out how the European Union is undergoing a dangerous drift in which mass immigration and Brussels’ centralizing drive directly threaten the identity and sovereignty of nations.
Vandendriessche opened the debate by recalling how, seventy years ago, the European project was born with the promise of peace and prosperity. But today, it has transformed into what he described as “a bureaucratic monster that generates poverty and division.” The Flemish politician denounced the impact of uncontrolled immigration on Brussels, where—he said—entire neighborhoods have lost their historic and cultural character due to a deliberate demographic replacement policy.
For the Flemish MEP, the combination of massive inflows from Islamic countries and the imposition of progressive ideologies from Brussels, such as the gender agenda, undermines social cohesion and puts European freedoms at risk: “What we see is not integration, but segregation. Entire nations are becoming fragmented minorities within their own territories.”
Kinga Gál, a Hungarian MEP with a long track record in Brussels and current vice president of Patriots for Europe, firmly defended the line adopted by her country since the migration crisis of 2015. She recalled how, against Angela Merkel’s famous “Wir schaffen das,” Viktor Orbán’s government decided to close the borders and reject the imposition of migrant relocation quotas:
Hungarians have the right to decide with whom they want to live. And that is the essence of sovereignty. We did not obey Brussels then and will not do so now. Ten years later, we can state that thanks to this, Hungary is a safe country, where families walk peacefully at night.
Gál denounced that this decision has turned Hungary into a constant target of harassment by the European Commission, which has taken the country to court several times. “Today, we pay one million euros per day in fines simply for not opening our borders to illegal immigration. It is political punishment, blackmail against a member wtate that defends its sovereignty,” she said.
She warned that the very survival of the Union is at stake if the Commission and the European People’s Party (EPP) continue to question the principle of unanimity in key decisions and seek to abolish the right of veto of member states. “If national sovereignty is eliminated, if governments elected by their peoples are prevented from having a voice and a vote, then this Union will collapse. What we see today is that the Commission has become the problem, not the solution,” she declared.
In her speech, Gál linked this drift with Brussels’ attempt to impose an accelerated expansion toward Ukraine and with policies that directly hit European farmers, families, and workers under the banner of the Green Deal or migration solidarity. “It is not about grand ideological dreams—it is about the real lives of citizens. Either we protect our communities and our families, or we will cease to have a future as Europeans.”
