European parliament's largest far-right bloc to rally in Madrid next week
MADRID: The European Parliament's largest far-right bloc will hold its first summit in Madrid next week with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and France's Marine Le Pen in attendance, Spanish party Vox said on Monday.
Patriots for Europe will meet on February 7 and 8 under the presidency of Vox leader Santiago Abascal to outline their strategy for the coming months, party spokesman Jose Antonio Fuster told reporters.
The group has realigned the EU far right and became the parliament's third-largest force after Orban helped launch it last year to shift Brussels rightwards.
Its 84 lawmakers include France's National Rally, the Party for Freedom of Dutch anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders, Vox, Austria's Freedom Party and Chega from Portugal.
The bloc overtook the European Conservatives and Reformists, associated with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, after last year's EU elections, in which the far right performed strongly in several countries.
Fuster said there was an alternative to the coalition between the European People's Party of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and the Socialists and Democrats.
Slamming 'their climate fanaticism and their open-door policies to mass immigration,' Fuster said his group 'represents millions of Europeans who want common sense to return to European institutions.'
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Both views are misplaced and unhelpful, not because a two-state solution is a panacea by itself, but because, among all possible alternatives, it is still the most viable answer, although it does need to be adjusted to reflect changing circumstances since the Oslo process collapsed. Most promising is a confederation model that is, in principle, a two-state solution in a one-state reality, which best reflects the current state of affairs. France, the UK and EU members that have not done so already should recognize Palestinian statehood. Yossi Mekelberg The alternative to a two-state solution is to once more let the current situation drag on and risk even worse consequences than the world has witnessed over the last 20 months, for both peoples, with far-reaching implications for the region and beyond. There are also three possible models of a one-state solution — and they are all either unattractive or unviable. 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If such a framework is introduced — with incentives for both sides to adhere to it and severe consequences if they do not — there is a good chance for a new momentum toward peace to emerge out of this international gathering. Moreover, if, by the time the delegates of the conference convene, a new ceasefire deal is not concluded, the first message from the conference must be a demand from the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to this effect. It must be one that will also see the release of the hostages and allow unlimited humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, as a first step toward the reconstruction of the Strip and the rehabilitation of the Palestinian people and their society, along a path toward a comprehensive peace agreement. It is true that the main responsibility for resolving the conflict still rests with the two parties themselves. 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