Belgian MEP and leader of the European Identity and Democracy (ID) group, Gerolf Annemans, has confirmed "intense negotiations" are taking place which may result in a reconfiguration of the far-right political groups within the European Parliament.
However Annemans, who is a member of the Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang, said the outcome of reconfiguration negotiations will not be known until after the European elections on 9 June, reports Belga News Agency.
A minimum of 23 MEPs are needed to form a political group in the European Parliament, and they must be from parties in at least seven different Member States. Additionally, MEPs cannot belong to more than one political group.
There are currently seven political groups in the European Parliament, including the far-right European Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) parties.
Divide between French RN and German AfD
Speculation around a reconfiguration of the European Parliament's far-right groups has been amplified this week, after the French National Rally (RN) party informed French news agency AFP on Tuesday that it will no longer sit with Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the European Parliament – confirming earlier reports by French newspaper Libération.
The move comes off the back of a controversial interview with AfD's lead candidate Maximilian Krah published by Italian newspaper La Repubblica last weekend. The German MEP, who just last month dismissed an assistant who was arrested on suspicions of spying for China, alleged in the interview that an SS member (the major Nazi paramilitary organisation) is "not automatically a criminal".
Both RN and AfD currently sit within the ID group at European level, but according to RN campaign director Alexandre Loubet, the decision to break away from the AfD was finalised by party leader Jordan Bardella on Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday morning Krah issued a statement on social media announcing that he will not make any further campaign appearances for the upcoming elections and will step down from AfD's executive board, saying that "factual and differentiated statements of mine are being misused as a pretext to harm our party."
Meloni's aspiration for larger far-right group
In parallel, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has aspirations to create a large parliamentary group on the far-right. Just last Sunday, she spoke at a political meeting in Madrid which RN leader Marine Le Pen attended.
Currently, Meloni’s party, Fratelli d’Italia, sits with the conservative ECR group, which includes nationalist conservative parties such as the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and Polish PiS (Polish Law and Justice Party), among others.
In the ECR group, the N-VA is notably uncomfortable. The Flemish nationalists are also conducting exploratory discussions with other political formats as the next political term approaches.
As per Gerolf Annemans, robust discussions about reconfiguring Europe's far-right groups are ongoing, although he added: "European cooperation is for later. Flanders first".
