Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini’s MEPs have joined forces with anti-immigration parties across Europe to create the biggest far-right group in the European parliament. While the far right now has 10% of MEPs in the new European parliament, compared with 5% in the 2014-19 session, other parties are not expected to vote far-right MEPs into influential positions. The ID group failed to convince Nigel Farage and his Brexit party to join. In the European parliament, Eurosceptic rightwing populists have been scattered across four groups, limiting their influence. Under European parliament rules, a group must consist of MEPs from at least seven countries.

Source: The Guardian June 13, 2019 13:50 UTC