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 for 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. FPO was previously also in ID.
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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