The national conservative Patriots.eu party—the political organization of the EU Parliament’s Patriots for Europe (PfE) group—held its first general assembly in Paris over the weekend, where its members elected Spanish VOX leader Santiago Abascal as its new president.
“Europe’s patriotic and sovereigntist forces have a great task ahead of us: to restore freedom, sovereignty, prosperity, security, and secure borders to Europeans,” Abascal said on Saturday, November 16th. “Together we will succeed. The winds of change are blowing across the West: the future belongs to patriots.”
After the last EU elections in June, the Patriots became the third largest group in the European Parliament, after the centrist EPP and the social democrat S&D, and is the largest of the three conservative groups with 86 MEPs—justifying its claim of being “the main opposition party in the European Union.”
“Under Abascal’s leadership, the party aims to solidify this alternative majority, challenging the traditional coalition behind the European People’s Party and the socialist bloc” in the EU Parliament, the Patriots said in a statement.
Abascal has been the leader of the national conservative VOX party since 2014 and has served as a Spanish MP since 2019 when his party rose to be the third most popular political force in Spain. Abascal not only turned VOX into a well-respected name among other European nationalist parties but also built alliances with the Republican party in the U.S. and all across the Spanish-speaking Americas.
“Abascal’s presidency, backed by his strong relationships with other parties and leaders across the Americas, is expected to significantly enhance collaborative efforts in defending national sovereignty, promoting prosperity, fostering mutual respect, and protecting freedom,” the Patriots’ statement added.
At the congress, MEP Kinga Gál (a member of the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz and first vice-chair of the parliamentary group) became the Patriots.eu’s vice-president, while Catherine Griset from the French National Rally (RN) was elected as the party’s new treasurer.
At the same time, the party welcomed three new members: Ruch Narodowy from Poland, as well as the Motoriste Sobe and the Prisaha, both from the Czech Republic.
With them, Patriots.eu now counts 15 party members from 13 European countries. Its largest members, other than those mentioned above, include the Dutch PVV, the Czech ANO, the Italian Lega, the Austrian FPÖ, the Flemish Vlaams Belang, and the Portuguese Chega.
The Patriot leaders reiterated the core elements of their mission: defending the sovereignty of EU member states against the ever-stronger centralization attempts of the European Commission and preventing the creation of a “European superstate.”
National sovereignty is going to be particularly important in the field of migration, their press release adds. “The leaders of the Patriots.eu have insisted on the possibility for Member States to activate the opt-out; allowing them to leave the European Migration Pact which will result in migrants being distributed throughout the continent.”
Both the Netherlands and Hungary have issued official opt-out requests from the EU’s common migration policy. For now, the mainstream forces in Brussels dismissed the idea—probably from fear of a domino effect if they agreed—even though not having to deal with constant vetoes from conservative governments during negotiations would make their job much easier.
The party leaders also stressed that the conservative revolution taking place across Europe shows that people are attached to values like traditions, freedom, identity, and security, and encouraged elected representatives across ideological lines to listen to their voters’ message.
