Negotiations are expected to wrap up in the next few days as the new right-wing parliamentary group, led by the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is planned to be officially launched later this week according to a letter seen by Der Spiegel.
According to an email obtained by the German media, an AfD aide requested a room in the European Parliament to host a “constituent meeting of a new group,” expecting over a hundred attendees, on Thursday, June 27th.
AfD decided to launch a new parliamentary group after Marine Le Pen’s Identity and Democracy (ID) voted against its membership for a second time, after they earlier expelled the German delegation because of remarks by its lead candidate, Maximilian Krah that appeared to relativize the guilt of SS-soldiers during World War II. Krah has since been kicked out of the party’s delegation in the European Parliament. Yet, as Le Pen sets her eyes on the government in the imminent French snap elections starting next weekend—as well as the French presidency in 2027—AfD no longer fits the image of a rebranded and increasingly moderate ID.
Still, not everyone in AfD is happy about having to join forces with small, previously non-aligned parties—often deemed too extreme for the other two national conservative groups—in order not to lose the benefits of group membership in the European Parliament. Some still hope that ID will open its doors at the last minute, but the majority know that the new group is their only chance.
Negotiations about the final composition are still ongoing and nothing is set in stone yet, despite only a few days being left until the planned formation of the group. It appears at least there is a consensus about the group’s name: “The Sovereignists.” Previous ideas included ‘Vera Europa’ (Latin for True Europe), and also ‘New Order,’ a source close to the negotiations told The European Conservative.
Apart from AfD’s 15 MEPs, The Sovereignists will possibly include the Bulgarian Vazrazhdane (Revival) with its three seats, the Spanish Se Acabó La Fiesta (‘The Party is Over,’ SALF) with three, the Slovak Republika and the SOS Romania with two seats each, as well as one MEP each from the Greek NIKH and the Hungarian Our Homeland.
With its six seats, the Polish Konfederacja would also be a great addition to the group, but its leaders are still undecided whether they would be comfortable sitting in the same group with German nationalists, given the two countries’ shared history. Sources also indicate that Konfederacja might be negotiating a possible entry into the more powerful ID group, which might reach close to 70 seats depending on whether the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz will join in the end.
Another MEP could come from Éric Zemmour’s French Reconquête party. The party was left with a single member, and homeless, following an internal disagreement over domestic strategies and the expulsion of four out of its five MEPs, who then rejoined the party’s previous European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) group. Now, with both ECR and ID already having French delegations, Reconquête’s lone MEP, Sarah Knafo, will either have to team up with AfD or remain non-aligned.
If all these parties end up joining The Sovereignists, the group will have 34 seats—the smallest in the Parliament, but with only five fewer MEPs than the extreme Left group on the opposite side of the aisle.
Under the European Parliament’s rules, new groups need to have at least 23 MEPs from seven different member states to qualify. Der Spiegel reported that they are confident to have the required numbers either way, but the composition might change until the very end.
Furthermore, the question of whether Maximilian Krah would have a place among the German MEPs in the new group has been brought up in recent days, but our source in AfD refused to tell us at this stage.
