Far right Patriots for Europe group joined by Polish members

Far-right Confederation MEPs Anna Bryłka and Tomasz Buczek announced that they had joined the recently formed far-right EU group, the Patriots for Europe.

After sending six MEPs to the European Parliament following the June elections, the Confederation Party split into two instead of joining a single group.

Three of the newly elected MEPs, Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik, Stanisław Tyszka, and Marcin Sypniewski, joined the new Europe of Sovereign Nations group, while the other three remained independent.

Bryłka, one of them, announced that she and Buczek, her colleague from the National Movement, the member movement of the Confederation party, had joined the Patriots for Europe after “long negotiations.”

“After several weeks of work in the European Parliament, Tomasz Buczek and I have joined the Patriots for Europe group, where we will cooperate work Marine Le Pen's National Unity, Santiago Abascal's VOX party, and Viktor Orban's Fidesz, among others," she wrote on X.

While the talks lasted a long time, “the goal was to join the largest right-wing group in this term of the European Parliament,” she said, adding that together with Buczek, she would “represent with dignity the Polish national interests in the Patriots for Europe group with dignity.”

She believes joining the Patriots group will help Confederation MEPs promote their demands more effectively.

“We know that climate policy, the Green Deal, uncontrolled migration, and bureaucratic ossification are the basic diseases afflicting the European Union, and Polish MEPs today gain a tool to fight these pathologies,” Bryłka added.

The group expressed satisfaction that “two such dedicated politicians, both in their Polish homeland and at the European level, have decided to join the Patriots’ Group.”

Bryłka and Buczek share the group’s values and are committed to preserving sovereign nations, the PfE said in an announcement published on X.

With the two additional MEPs, the group gains “an important member country,” Poland, a country that “will remain a tower of strength, not only when it comes to preserving peace, freedom, and prosperity, but also in terms of defending its borders against rampant illegal migration,” PfE added.

It is rare for a party to split in the European Parliament, with MEPs joining different groups, as was the case for Confederation lawmakers.

Previously, Zajączkowska-Hernik, Tyszka, and Sypniewski were criticised at home for joining the EU group of Sovereign Nations. The reason for this was their membership of the German AfD, which is viewed in Poland as questioning the affiliation of the country's western region and accused of neo-Nazi sentiments.

Bryłka previously said she did not want to join the ESN group because she did not want to be in the same group as the AfD.

Despite their belonging to the different groups in the EU house now, Zajączkowska-Hernik congratulated her colleagues on her joining the Patriots of Europe.

Controversial lawmaker still solo

Despite the two joining the new far-right group, Grzegorz Braun, another Confederation MEP, remains independent. Although no group has commented on the issue, unofficial sources say that the reason could be his radical views and controversial behaviour, for which neither ESN nor Patriots want to be associated with him.

Braun is known for his openly racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic statements, as well as scandalous acts such as dousing Hanukkah candles with a fire extinguisher in the Polish parliament last December to protest against the celebration of the Jewish holiday.

In one of his first speeches in the European Parliament, he rhetorically asked whether it was a war council and argued that the EU's support for Ukraine was only helping to prolong the war there.

During another debate, he called the EU warning against the consequences of climate change “a revolutionary Soviet-Nazi rhetoric, in which any pretext is good to seize power.”

“You are not here to help; you are here to take power over the sovereign nations of Europe,” he told the European Parliament and European Commission.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)