The Europe of Sovereign Nations Group (ESN; French: L'Europe des Nations Souveraines; German: Europa Souveräner Nationen), also known as the Sovereigntists,[citation needed] is a far-right political group in the European Parliament, formed on 10 July 2024 as the smallest group ahead of the 10th European Parliament. Its members previously belonged to the Identity and Democracy group or were non-attached.[9]
History
Formation
Plans for the AfD to form a new political group called the Sovereignists became known shortly after the 2024 European Parliament elections. The AfD MEPs had been expelled from the Identity and Democracy (ID) Group shortly before the election due to reports of Nazi sympathising from the AfD leadership.[10] The AfD delegation excluded the lead candidate Maximilian Krah and led a failed attempt to be reinstated in the ID Group.[11] On 4 July 2024, Czech MEP Ivan David (SPD) announced the formation of a political group with the AfD. On July 8, 2024, the Patriots for Europe (PfE) parliamentary group was founded as the successor to the ID. Notably, the Czech SPD party, which previously belonged to the ID group, chose to not join PfE citing they did not want to be in the same group as those who “voted for the Green Deal and supported migration” in reference to Czech ANO party.[12]
Due to his expulsion from the AfD delegation, Maximilian Krah sits as an independent MEP and his membership was rejected by Czech[15] and Polish members due to his statements about the SS and accusations of corruption by pro-Russian forces.[citation needed] In June, SALF denied any connections to the AfD.[16] The inclusion of the Romanian party S.O.S. Romania in the parliamentary group was also rejected by the AfD and Our Homeland,[17][18] while the participation of Polish KKP MEP Grzegorz Braun[19] and Slovak Republic MEP Milan Mazurek[20] were also rejected by the AfD. The Ruch Narodowy MEPs, who had contested the elections together with Braun and the New Hope as Konfederacja, spoke out against joining a parliamentary group in which the German AfD was involved.[21]
Europe of Sovereign Nations has MEPs in 8 member states. Dark blue indicates member states sending multiple MEPs, light blue indicates member states sending a single MEP.
^"Romanian Diana Șoșoacă's party rejected by new far-right group in European Parliament". Romania Insider. 11 July 2024. "At our request, the group rejected the application of the SOS Romania party to join," said Laszlo Toroczkai, a member of the Hungarian Our Homeland party, in a post on X. He motivated the request by saying that SOS Romania is anti-Hungarian.
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