Latest news with #PatriotsforEurope
Euronews
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Brussels, my love? The rise and fall of Marine le Pen
ADVERTISEMENT We are joined this week by Fabrice Leggeri, French National Rally MEP with the Patriots for Europe, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú- Irish Fianna Fail MEP with Renew Europe and Dharmendra Kanani, chief spokesperson for the Brussels based think tank - Friends of Europe. The panel react to the recent court case that found French National Rally leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling millions of euros of EU funds and banned her potentially from running for political office for five years. The news has triggered a lively debate across France, as Le Pen was tipped to be a frontrunner in the upcoming 2027 presidential elections. Fabrice Leggeri, a close friend of Marine Le Pen, insisted she was innocent. "It's not a surprise that French judges want to bar Marine Le Pen from the presidential election", he told the panel. But Cynthia Ní Mhurchú - a barrister by trade - said being in denial was an example of the far right undermining institutions and independent judges. "This is all about democracy. This is about Marine Le Pen undermining democracy, and not only seeking to undermine, but deliberately undermining democracy and the rule of law and all of those values that I know my group hold dearly". The panel also discussed the roller coaster ride that the world just had due to President Donald Trump's tariff announcement. The uncertainty has given the EU a shake up to seek other partners and allies across the world. "It's a good kick up the backside because actually it's great that Ursula von der Leyen stood there and said, "we will work with anybody who has a mutual interest", Dharmendra Kanani said, adding "I would say to her to put "p.s. that share our values", please.. Watch "Brussels, my love?" in the player above.
Euronews
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Eurosceptic Patriots call for Parliamentary inquiry into corruption scandals
ADVERTISEMENT The leader of the eurosceptic Patriots for Europe group has called on fellow MEPs to establish a European Parliament committee of inquiry on transparency and accountability in the wake of recent corruption scandals including the ongoing investigation into alleged influence peddling involving Chinese tech giant Huawei. In an email made public by Daniel Freund (Germany/Greens), Jordan Bardella claimed such a committee could address 'allegations of corruption, money-laundering, abuse of power, undue interference in legislative processes' and other breaches of the rule of law in the EU institutions. The call comes after the recent scandal which saw five people charged in a corruption probe linked to Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, suspected by Belgian prosecutors of bribing EU lawmakers to promote the company's commercial policies in Europe. Huawei said in a previous statement that it "maintains a zero-tolerance stance against corruption", is "fully committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations", and that it would 'urgently communicate' with investigators. Related Lawmakers call for binding 5G security measures in wake of Huawei scandal MEPs who signed Huawei-linked 5G letter deny payments In 2019 the Parliament was rocked by an ongoing scandal involving allegations that officials, lobbyists and their families were influenced by the governments of Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania, engaging in corruption and money laundering. 'EU institutions must operate with full transparency and accountability, and the rules of law should be upheld by all EU institutions and agencies,' Bardella's said in his email. Last month, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (NR) party in the French parliament, was found guilty by a Paris court of misappropriation of public funds and barred from running for office for five years "with immediate effect." Bardella was elected NR president in 2022. Lawmakers have until 23 April to sign up to Bardella's initiative. It will be up to the Parliament, on a proposal from the Conference of Presidents - which consists of the leaders of the political groups - to decide whether to set up a committee and, if so, with how many members. A cordon sanitaire has been in place through which centrist pro-European groups effectively work together to deny the right-wing groups top jobs such as presidencies or vice-presidencies of the Parliament's committees. As a result of the practice the Patriots failed to secure high level positions despite achieving good results at last June's elections and becoming the Parliament's third largest group. Patriots for Europe have been contacted for a comment.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Orbán expresses solidarity with France's Le Pen: 'Je suis Marine!'
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has expressed his solidarity with French far-right icon Marine Le Pen after she was barred from running for office by a Paris court. He posted in French "Je suis Marine!" (I am Marine) on the platform X. Orbán, an ally of Le Pen, leads the Fidesz party, which, alongside Le Pen's National Rally, forms the core of the far-right faction Patriots for Europe, the third-largest group of lawmakers in the European Parliament. She was found guilty on Monday of misusing European funds and sentenced to four years in prison, two of them suspended and the other two with an electronic tag rather than in custody. She was barred from running for office with immediate effect, jeopardizing her plan to run for the presidency in 2027.
Budapest Times
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
MEP: EC send rejection response to NGO funding requests
European Parliament's Patriots for Europe group has submitted 86 requests for access to data of public interest to the European Commission over the funding of NGOs, "but the response was rejection". Csaba Dömötör, an MEP of ruling Fidesz, said the European Parliament's Patriots for Europe group has submitted 86 requests for access to data of public interest to the European Commission over the funding of NGOs, 'but the response was rejection'. Dömötör told a conference on the transparency of the financing of NGOs in Brussels on Wednesday, organized by the party group and the Brussels branch of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, that European taxpayers' money had been used to support politically active groups 'but there is no transparent, unified database on how they are financed'. He said the EC had rejected the requests, citing various absurd reasons: first, they said the request targeted general information rather than concrete agreements, then that the requests were too wide-ranging, and then that all necessary information was available on their website. They are simply not true,' Dömötör said. The party family will submit further requests and also turn to the European ombudsman, and proceed to go to court should the lists not be forthcoming, he said. 'Hungarian ministries are obliged to regularly publish information on the nature of the contracts they conclude, on the contracting parties and on the sums involved … Further, if someone submits a request for data of public interest, they must allow access to the contracts and their performance within the deadline enshrined in law,' he said. At the same time, the EC 'is utterly unwilling to answer to requests for data on Brussels institutions, even as it continues to push for stricter Hungarian laws on the freedom of information,' he said. The issue is with 'a network of political activists', not 'traditional' civil society, he added. 'When Guy Verhofstadt, an earlier figurehead of the Liberals, receives the equivalent of 6 billion forints [EUR 15m] in funding for his own so-called NGO, that is not nonprofit work, that's building a political network,' he said. Other organizations are suing Hungary at the Court of Justice of the European Union for issues such as border protection. 'That is political interference,' he said. 'They are shirking the democratic principles they are expecting everyone else to comply with. That is what we want to change,' he said. Domotor said EU institutions regularly supported various organisations 'with millions of euros', and insisted that the funding flowed almost exclusively to serve leftist-liberal political agendas. 'They are weakening the states in migration regulations, organise political attacks against legitimate governments, and use censorship under the name of fact-checking.' Those organisations, he insisted, 'have no local roots or social legitimacy as 90 percent of their funding comes from outside sources, the European Commission or Soros-linked circles.' Fidesz MEP Andras Laszlo told the conference that many NGOs operated as 'the extensions of governments'. He also said that recent corruption scandals had highlighted the importance of transparency: 'We must know where the money comes from, what it is spent on, and who are actually behind those organisations…' He said that 7 central European EU or NATO member states had been 'targeted by political interference through USAID projects', Laszlo said. 'The support was disbursed without consultation with local government, which also amounts to interference.'
Budapest Times
21-03-2025
- Business
- Budapest Times
Orbán: Hungary supports a Europe that should be able to defend itself independently
The prime minister said Hungary supported armament aiming to ensure European security. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary's parliament has declared that the country continues to support a Europe that should be able to defend itself independently. Speaking at the House of Hungarians in Brussels ahead of a meeting of the Patriots for Europe party group, PM Orbán said Hungary supported armament aiming to ensure European security. 'The question is where the money will come from. We propose that everyone puts in money from their own coffers. Funds should not come from a joint European loan. We do not want to be burdened with joint debts with anyone,' he said. Money should be held in a joint European security fund, PM Orbán said. 'Hungary is ready and able' to do that, he added. Thursday's summit will, in part, focus on Ukraine's EU membership, 'which some will try to rush, but Hungary definitively opposes that', he said. PM Orbán said that 'so far if we break it down to families and households, the war has cost 2.5 million forints [EUR 6,280] each. The costs of [Ukraine's] EU accession would immediately come to 500,000 forints per household. We don't want to shoulder that, so we will stick to our stance,' he added. Regarding migration, PM Orbán said that 'rebelling prime ministers who disagree with the migration policy and want to change it' would gather ahead of the summit on Thursday. The summit would see 'an open conspiracy headed by the Italians aiming to curb the flow of illegal migrants,' he said. Fielding questions in English, PM Orbán said Hungary did not support EU monies being disbursed to Ukraine, adding that 'in our understanding, there is one simple mission [for] the European Union, to support … President Donald Trump's efforts to make peace.' He said he was representing Hungarians' opinions who believed strongly that all efforts should go towards brokering peace. 'We are losing lives [by the] thousands which is totally against our values.' The war is also very expensive, PM Orbán said, 'creating higher energy price, the bonds' interest rates went up, and we lost export possibilities in Russia.' Asked whether he would ban the Pride March in Hungary, he said: 'We are not there yet… We changed the constitution [to say] that the basic rights of the kids, to have the proper growing up and education is which is well ahead of all the other basic rights of the citizens of Hungary. That's what we have done, which could be the basis to ban anything that could be against the interests of the children. What we are doing is to protect our children,' Orban said. Organizers of the Pride March will have to turn to the authorities and await their decision, he said. He also emphasised that no one would be arrested at such an event. However, they would be fined, he said. 'If you break the law, you have to pay.'
