Brussels. The great construction site of the European sovereign right opens in Budapest. The Hungarian capital was the scene of the meeting between the leaders of Hungary and Poland, Viktor Orbán and Mateusz Morawiecki, and the federal secretary of the League, Matteo Salvini. A summit to probe the political affinities, of the program, in view of a possible alliance that could lead to a new group in the European Parliament.
Orban’s party, Fidesz, withdrew from the People’s Party (EPP) after the leaders of the European party revised the internal rules in a more severe manner. Now the ex-EPP Hungarian MEPs are seated among the non-members, and they have to relocate. The Poles of Law and Justice (Pis) sit among the benches of the European Conservatives (ECR), while Salvini’s League is part of Identity and Democracy (ID).
Salvini has never hidden the desire to be able to create a single large block, precisely with Fidesz and Pis. The meeting with Orbán and Morawiecki is part of this project, at this point not only in the thoughts of the leader of the Carroccio.
More than an hour of talks, after which the party in via Bellerio made it known that the three leaders insisted on the need for a real “European renaissance”. It is a question of overcoming the health and economic emergency, of course, but not only. The discussion of the vaccination strategy was only one of the issues addressed in the broader reasoning on Europe. The sovereignists want to share “a new idea of Europe”. The Italian side of this construction site is certain that with the Budapest Summit “a path is starting to give an alternative vision to that of a bureaucratic European Union far from the citizens”.
The big construction site is therefore open. There will be other appointments, “also involving leaders of other parties and other governments”, proof of the fact that we intend to create a single large bloc in the European Parliament. In order to form a parliamentary group, at least 25 deputies elected in at least a quarter of the EU member states are required. The Italy-Poland-Hungary alliance, which already alone exceeds the requirement of seats, must be reinforced by at least four other countries, and that seems to be the goal.
It is difficult to understand if it will be possible to proceed with a reshuffling of the cards already during this legislature, but the start of the political work certainly opens up new scenarios and new perspectives. “We are not here to dismantle something or attack something, but to build something new, unique and long-lived,” says Salvini during the press release at the end of the meeting.