The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party announced on Wednesday the creation of a new right-wing group in the European Parliament.
As the spokesperson for co-group leader Alice Weidel announced, the ‘Europe of Sovereign Nations’ group will initially consist of 25 parliamentarians from a total of eight countries, 14 of whom are from the AfD.
The group is currently the smallest within the EU legislature.
Political parties from more than 7 EU countries must, under European Parliament rules, set up a group with at least 23 EU lawmakers.
Other countries represented are Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Lithuania, France and Spain.
The group must now inform the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, of its creation, which is expected to be formally confirmed at a parliamentary meeting next week in Strasbourg, France.
The group’s co-leaders are René Aust, a German EU lawmaker from the AfD, and Stanislaw Tyszka of Poland’s Konfederacja.
Maximilian Krah, a scandal-plagued AFD politician who was expelled from the party’s delegation in the European Parliament over controversial statements about Germany’s Nazi past, is not part of the group.
However, Krah welcomed the group’s creation on X.
“I am delighted that the creation of the group in the European Parliament will deliver on a project I have been working on for many years.”
“The importance of this project is much greater than my own role, so I am satisfied and feel no resentment,” he said.
