Spanish ultraconservative party Vox
said Friday it was leaving Premier Giorgia Meloni's European
Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) caucus for Hungarian Prime
Minister Viktor Orban's new Patriots of Europe group.
"Giorgia Meloni will always remain a friend and ally," said the
nationalist party.
The Patriots - Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Orban's
Fidesz and the populist Czech ANO party led by Andrej Babis -
are expected to formally launch next Monday.
Orban has said he expects Italy's rightwing League party,
currently in the Identity and Democracy (ID) caucus along with
Marine Le Pen's National Rally, to sign up for the new group
too.
As well as Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI), the ECR also
features Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party, which briefly
flirted with leaving this week, and the Sweden Democrats among
other hard right parties.
It overtook the liberals to become the European Parliament's
third biggest group behind the centre right European people's
Party (EPp) and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in last
month's European elections.
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