Following “long negotiations,” two MEPs belonging to the Polish National Movement, a member party of the Confederation (Konfederacja), successfully joined the ranks of the national conservative Patriots for Europe (PfE), the group announced on X.
According to a press release
We are particularly pleased that two such dedicated politicians, both in their Polish homelands and at European level, have decided to join the Patriots’ Group. With MEP Anna Bryłka and MEP Tomasz Buczek, the Patriots have welcomed two MEPs who share the common values and goals of the Patriots Group and are committed to the upholding of sovereign nations, the protection of our identity, and the preservation of the cultural heritage.
National Movement is one of three member parties of the Confederation Liberty and Independence Alliance (Confederation for short), a smaller nationalist party that controls 18 seats in the Sejm (Polish parliament) and six in the European Parliament.
The largest of the three, the Janusz Korwin-Mikke-founded New Hope, has three MEPs who joined the AfD-led Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group after the EU elections. The other two parties, the National Movement’s two and the Confederation of the Polish Crown’s one MEP opted to remain independent at the time.
The former now choose not to follow their allies into ESN but to join the much larger PfE, whose members—among others—include Marine Le Pen’s French National Rally (RN), the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz, Matteo Salvini’s Italian Lega, the Spanish VOX, the Dutch PVV, the Austrian FPÖ, and the Czech ANO.
With the addition of the two new MEPs, the Patriots have grown to 86 seats, controlling 12% of the 720-seat chamber. They are the third largest political group, ahead of the leftists like the liberal Renew (77 seats) and the Greens (53 seats), and the primary conservative party family in Brussels.
With the National Movement now among its ranks, the group also gained an important member country. As its press release states:
Poland is and will remain a tower of strength, not only when it comes to preserving peace, freedom, and prosperity, but also in terms of defending its borders against illegal migration.
“We agree with the policy of protecting the national interests of member states. This is what unites us all, as well as the protection of traditional European values,” one of the new members, MEP Anna Bryłka, said at the Patriots meeting on Monday after officially joining the group.
