Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s nationalist Vox party, has been named the new chairman of the Patriots for Europe group in the EU parliament.
The leader of Spain’s nationalist Vox party Santiago Abascal has been appointed the chairman of the right-wing Patriots for Europe party during a general assembly held in Paris on Saturday.
Spain’s nationalist Vox party, with six MEPs, left the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group to join the Patriots for Europe in July.
Vox leader Abascal said at the time that the decision was a response to the ‘historic opportunity’ to fight against a coalition of centre-right, socialist and far-left forces.
Abascal was voted to be the chairman of the pan-European Patriots party, as distinct from the group in the European Parliament, during the party’s general assembly held in Paris. There were no other candidates for the position.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán formed the Patriots in the wake of the success of many far-right parties in the EU’s parliamentary elections in June.
Most of them are now members of the Patriots for Europe and some of them met in Brussels in October for the first time before a summit of European leaders.
Belgian MEP Gerolf Annemans – the group’s president – told Euronews that the main topic of that meeting was migration and “the way the European Union should treat member states that are in difficulties”.
Orban, Abascla and Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen from France’s National Rally, as well as Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini and Geert Wilders, president of the Dutch Party for Freedom are the group’s main figures.
Other far-right parties include: the Action of Dissatisfied Citizens in the Czech Republic, Chega in Portugal, Vlaams Belang in Belgium, People’s Party in Denmark, Voice of Reason in Greece, and Latvia First.
