European Nationalists Eye New Alliance At Warsaw Talks

Warsaw, Dec 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Dec, 2021 ) :Leaders of European far-right and nationalist parties meet in Warsaw on Saturday with the aim of creating a powerful new alliance that would become the second-biggest grouping in the European Parliament.

The talks will include around 14 parties and are being hosted by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's ruling right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen are expected to attend, although organisers have not released a guest list.

Le Pen, a candidate in France's presidential election in April, said the meeting was "an important step" but she did not expect any imminent announcement of a new group.

"We can be optimistic about the launch of this political force in the months to come," she told reporters.

One notable absentee will be Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's League, which put out a statement saying that "the time needs to be right and egoism and fear (both from parties and nations) need to be overcome".

Salvini was one of the signatories of a declaration in July announcing plans for a "grand alliance" in the European Parliament -- the prelude for Saturday's talks.

The League and Le Pen's National Rally are in the European Parliament's Identity and Democracy Group, while PiS, Spain's Vox and the Brothers of Italy party are in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.

Orban's Fidesz left the European People's Party, the biggest group in the parliament, in March and is looking for a new home.

Hungarian Families Minister Katalin Novak said the party's aim was "to ensure that people with a nationalist, pro-freedom, anti-immigration and respect for traditional family values are represented as strongly as possible in European decision-making".

- 'It takes time' - Ewa Marciniak, a political scientist at the Polish academy of Sciences, said participants in Saturday's talks would try to "minimise the differences between them", including on issues such as relations with Russia, as well as attitudes to abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Instead she said they would emphasise "their willingness to go back to the roots of the European Union".

The EU accuses Poland and Hungary of rolling back democratic freedoms in recent years and has threatened to withhold funding using a new conditionality mechanism.

Poland and Hungary say their sovereignty is under threat and have adopted increasingly eurosceptic rhetoric.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Friday said Europe found itself at "a turning point" and called for member states to put an end to the "usurpation that is concentrating power in the hands of the European elites".

Le Pen already met with Morawiecki and Orban in October, expressing support in their stand-off with the EU and over their firm stance against mass immigration.

But on Friday she said that forging a new alliance would not be quick, warning that "bringing together political movements is a long haul. It takes time".