Orbán's far-right alliance reaches European Parliament group status

A new far-right alliance in the European Parliament, launched just a week ago by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has enough parties to achieve group status.

The Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), Belgium's Vlaams Belang and the Danish People's Party announced their intention to join the alliance over the weekend.

Their declaration means seven countries are now represented in the alliance called Patriots for Europe, an important condition to form a parliamentary group in the EU legislature.

As well as representing a quarter of EU countries, a political group must have 23 EU legislators, according to European Parliament rules. It is not permitted to belong to more than one group.

Orbán's Fidesz party, Austria's far-right Freedom Party and the Czech ANO party were the first members the Patriots for Europe alliance when it was first announced.

The group's manifesto has the usual far-right focus on retaining national sovereignty vis-à-vis the European Union, fighting illegal migration and pushing back EU measures to reduce climate change.