Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom

Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedoms
President Louis Aliot[1]
Founded 2014 (2014)
Ideology Nationalism
Right-wing populism
Euroscepticism
Conservatism
Souverainism
Political position Right-wing to Far-right
European Parliament group Europe of Nations and Freedom
Political foundation Foundation for a Europe of Nations and Freedom
Website
www.menleuropa.eu

The Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom (French: Mouvement pour l’Europe des nations et des libertés), abbreviated to MENL or MENF, is an alliance of European political parties founded in 2014. Its political group in the European Parliament is Europe of Nations and Freedom.

History

In the aftermath of the European Parliament election, 2014, parties affiliated with the European Alliance for Freedom unsuccessfully attempted to form a political group in the European Parliament.[2][3][4]

Later in 2014, they decided to create a new European-level structure, which became the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom. The Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) chose not to participate in this pan-European party, as it declined to be funded by the European Union.[5] The Polish Congress of the New Right (KNP), initially claimed that it would be part of the new alliance, but was accused in a press release by the French National Front of spreading false claims in the Polish and Austrian media.[6] Ultimately the KNP took part in the creation of the party's new parliamentary group as its former controversial leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke was evicted from the party to be replaced by Michal Marusik.

It was recognised by the European Parliament (EP) in 2015. Its maximum grant by the EP for this year is €1.170.746[7] plus €621.677 for its affiliated political foundation, the Fondation pour une Europe des Nations et des Libertés.[8]

On 16 June 2015, the Europe of Nations and Freedom parliamentary group was created in the European Parliament with members of the MENL (FN, FPÖ, LN, VB) as well as the PVV, Poland's KNP and a former member of UKIP, Janice Atkinson.

The 1st congress of the movement was held on 28 June 2015 in Perpignan, France gathering some MEPs from the National Front as well as a few of its local & national representatives members; the objective of this meeting was mainly about making the 1st year of action of the National Front's MEPs in review.[9]

On 15 September 2015, the Flemish Vlaams Belang (VB) and the movement organized a colloquium dealing with sovereignty which took place in the Flemish Parliament with VB's leader Tom Van Grieken, MEP Gerolf Annemans, VB's member Barbara Pas and National Front's leader Marine Le Pen.[10] All of the Flemish parties approved Marine Le Pen's visit at the Flemish Parliament although the speaker of the Flemish Parliament Jan Peumans (N-VA) decided not to be part of this colloquium.[11]

On 24 October 2015, MENL's leader and vice-president of the National Front Louis Aliot met the current president of Fratelli d'Italia, Giorgia Meloni in Trieste for a conference on immigration.[12]

Marine Le Pen praised SVP's victory during the 2015 Swiss election although the Swiss party does not have official links with the movement.[13] The movement also launched an anti-immigration campaign in 2015 just like the SVP's campaign during Swiss referendum on immigration in 2014.

On 21 November 2015, MENL's think thank "Foundation for a Europe of Nations and Freedom" organized a colloquium ("L'euro, un échec inéluctable?") dealing with Euro and how it might be an inescapable failure. Jacques Sapir took part in this colloqium among others. The FENF, chaired by Gerolf Annemans, organized another colloquim on 2 April 2016 in Paris dealing with union representation and the development of professional organizations in France.[14]

The third colloquium of the movement took place on 4 March 2016 in the Flemish Parliament with VB's leader Tom Van Grieken and PVV's leader Geert Wilders. This colloquim entitled "Freedom" ("Vrijheid") dealt with liberties in Europe and how they would be threatened by immigration from "countries with cultures which are fundamentally different [from the European one]".[15]

Member parties

The following national delegations are part of MENL:[16]

Country Party European MPs National MPs
 Austria Freedom Party of Austria
4 / 18
40 / 183
 Belgium Vlaams Belang[17]
1 / 21
3 / 150
 France National Front
23 / 74
2 / 577
 Italy Northern League
5 / 73
18 / 630
 Czech Republic Občanská konzervativní strana
0 / 21
1 / 200

Other related parties

The Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), the Polish Congress of the New Right (KNP) and the German Alternative for Germany (AfD), despite not being members of MENL, participate in its political group in the European Parliament, ENL.[18]

MENL leaders also have had public political relations of some kind with Brothers of Italy (FdI, Italy)[19] and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD, Czech Republic).[20]

In February 2016, FPÖ's leader Heinz-Christian Strache was invited by the anti-Euro & anti-immigration party AfD and its leader Frauke Petry to their congress in Düsseldorf and the AfD also announced a cooperation pact with the FPÖ.[21][22] In April 2016, AfD's vice-president Alexander Gauland also proposed an alliance with Marine Le Pen's National Front.[23] Therefore, AfD's MEP Marcus Pretzell joined the Europe of Nations and Freedom group on April 30, 2016.

Former member parties

Among members of MENL's predecessor European Alliance for Freedom (EAF), the following parties did not join MENL:

Structure

President

Members of the Bureau

Treasurer

References

  1. ↑ "2005-2015 - Le "NON" 10 ans après : Une première victoire des peuples européens sur le fédéralisme". SIEL. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "Le Pen party steals Farage’s Italian allies". The Times. 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  3. ↑ "Marine Le Pen fails to form far-right bloc in European parliament | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  4. ↑ "Le Pen's Far-Right EU Parliament Alliance Fails at Start". Ibtimes.co.uk. 2014-06-24. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  5. ↑ Cas Mudde. "The EAF is dead! Long live the MENL!". openDemocracy. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "Communiqué d’Aymeric Chauprade, chef de Délégation du Front National au Parlement européen". Front National. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  7. ↑ "Grants from the European Parliament to political parties at European level 2004-2015", March 2015, Europarl.europa.eu, retrieved 27 April 2015
  8. ↑ "Grants from the European Parliament to political foundations at European level 2008-2015", March 2015, Europarl.europa.eu/, retrieved 27 April 2015
  9. ↑ "À Perpignan, le Front national accuse l’Europe et le pouvoir (notre interview video de Marine Le Pen)". 27 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Colloquium Soevereiniteit: Grenzen Stellen". Grenzenstellen.eu. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  11. ↑ Frédéric Chardon (2015-09-15). "Tous les partis flamands ont approuvé la venue de Marine Le Pen". La Libre.be. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  12. ↑ "Fratelli d'Italia – Alleanza Nazionale | Immigrazione, sabato 24 ottobre confronto a Trieste tra Giorgia Meloni e il vicepresidente del Front National, Louis Aliot". Fratelli-italia.it. 2015-10-20. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  13. ↑ "Victoire de l'UDC: beaucoup de Français enthousiastes - Le Temps". Letemps.ch (in French). Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  14. ↑ "Foundation for a Europe of Nations and Freedom - Contact". Fenl.eu. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  15. ↑ "Colloquium Vrijheid". Colloquiumvrijheid.eu. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  16. ↑ "National delegation". MENL. Retrieved 2015-08-06.
  17. ↑ "Press Conference: Aftermath of the elections, a future for the EU or a future for Europe?". European Alliance for Freedom. 28 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "European Parliament : MEPs". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  19. ↑ "Destra, Marine Le Pen incontra Giorgia Meloni e Gianni Alemanno (video) | Europa Quotidiano". Europaquotidiano.it. 2003-07-28. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  20. ↑ "Tomio Okamura svolal všechny své lidi a bylo rušno: Nepřátelští vetřelci! Pokus o vraždu. Delegace od Marine Le Pen i provolání k Zemanovi | ParlamentniListy.cz – politika ze všech stran". Parlamentnilisty.cz. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  21. ↑ "Deutsche AfD und FPÖ beschließen Zusammenarbeit - FPÖ - derStandard.at › Inland". Derstandard.at. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  22. ↑ "AfD und FPÖ probten in Düsseldorf den Schulterschluss | WAZ.de". Derwesten.de (in German). 2016-02-14. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  23. ↑ "AfD-Vize Alexander Gauland erwägt offenbar Fraktion mit Front National - SPIEGEL ONLINE". Spiegel.de. 2016-04-10. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
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