Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the formation of a new right-wing group in the European Parliament (EP), a day before the country assumes the rotating EU presidency on July 1.

The Hungarian strongman appeared before the press in Vienna with Austrian FPO leader Herbert Kickl and former Czech premier and leader of the ANO party Andrej Babis to announce the establishment of Patriots for Europe, a new radical rightwing alliance in the EP.

However, it is far from clear that the new grouping will become a formal political group in the EP, which must have at least 23 MEPs, from seven countries.  The founding parties have 24 MEPs but need MEPs from four more countries to qualify for group benefits such as committee seats. The next few days will be decisive as the July 4 deadline to submit the list of MEPs to the EP approaches.

The creation of a third EP group to the right of the centre-right's European People's Party (EPP) demonstrates the fragmentation of the hard right and its divisions, notably over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has broadly backed Ukraine, while the far-right Identity and Democracy group (ID) has opposed sanctions on Russia as well as aid for Ukraine. The new Patriots for Europe group has also taken Moscow's side, though Babis' ANO has taken a more ambivalent stance in favour of "peace".

Hungary's leader has toured European capitals in the past weeks to discuss the country’s presidency priorities, but talks also evolved around gathering support for the new right-wing alliance.

The manifesto, signed on June 30 in Vienna, outlines the vision for a Europe consisting of strong, independent nations that reject further centralisation of power in Brussels and uphold national sovereignty.

"What Europeans want is three things: peace, order and development," Orban said at the joint press conference, adding that "what people are getting from the elite in Brussels today is war, migration and stagnation".

"Our objective is to be the strongest right-wing group in the EP" he added.

Fidesz lost two seats in the recent elections and is without a parliamentary group since leaving the EPP three years ago before being expelled for violating EU rule of law values.

Orban launched a renewed attack on EPP leader Manfred Weber, calling him a Hungarophobe, after EPP accepted members of the new Tisza Party, led by former Fidesz cadre, Peter Magyar to its ranks.

Previously Orban has expressed intention to join European Conservative and Reformist (ECR), the forth-largest faction in the EP, but due to the opposition of some of its members over Hungary's pro-Moscow stance, ECR party leader and Italian premier Giorgia Meloni rejected his plea. To save face, Fidesz argued that they refused to join because ECR accepted "anti-Hungarian" Romanian far right party ARU to its ranks.

Hungary's nationalist leader has been courting his long-term ally, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to join his alliance of Central European nationalists. The PiS party is currently the second-largest member of ECR with 21 mandates, or a quarter of the total seats, behind Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy with 24 seats.

Before the announcement of the new right-wing faction, PiS turned down Orban’s offer to join the new formation, as the Polish radical right-wing party opted to stay within ECR. Orban will likely put an extra effort to convince his ally, voted out of power in October 2023, to choose his new political group over ECR. Luring PiS would be a major victory for Hungary’s strongman, who has been isolated in Europe for blocking EU decisions and his pro-Russian stance.

At the joint press conference, Babis said members welcome more parties to join. Slovenia's SDS of former premier Janez Jansa and the Slovak Smer party of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico are seen as potential members. Germany's AfD could also join, though this would be controversial, as the party is seen as even more extreme right than the FPO.

“We will change the European politics so that it again serves nations and our people. We will prioritize national sovereignty over federalism, freedom over orders, peace over war,” Babis wrote on his Facebook social media profile.

Babis' ANO left the centrist Renew faction shortly after the elections to the European Parliament in June, which ANO won in Czechia, collecting seven MEPs.

FPO leader Herbert Kickl spoke of a "historic day" and praised Orban as the only head of government in the EU who successfully opposes illegal immigration and excessive centralism, and he also spoke highly of Babis, whose ANO party stands for a "path of reason".

The FPO has left the ID group to join the new alliance. According to media reports, the FPO was unhappy with the way the ID's leading party, France's National Rally, expelled the AfD over its lead candidate's comments about the SS not being all bad.

The signatories emphasize that Europe has reached a critical juncture, where institutions distant from its citizens, influenced by globalist forces and unelected bureaucrats, are trying to replace national governance with a central European state. The founders criticise the EU for acting against the interests of its nations and communities and call for protecting European identity, traditions and sovereignty.

"We will reclaim our institutions and steer European politics in a direction that serves our nations and peoples. We will prioritise sovereignty over federalism, freedom over dictates, and peace: this is the manifesto of patriots serving Europe," concludes the document.

Orban along with the Italian prime minister opposed the agreement by the top three factions in the EP to split top jobs among them. Meloni voted against António Costa as president of the European Council, and Kaja Kallas as the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, but abstained on Ursula von der Leyen's nomination for president of the European Commission. Orban voted against von der Leyen and abstained on Kallas. 

The vote for the new leaders will take place during the first parliament plenary in Strasbourg on July 16-17, and according to reports the confirmation of  von der Leyen in the EP remains uncertain.