Split in Polish far-right Confederation as half its MEPs join Germany’s AfD in new EU grouping
Half of the MEPs elected last month to represent Poland’s far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party in the European Parliament (EP) have joined a new group led by Alternative for Germany (AfD).
That has resulted in a split within Confederation, which holds six seats in the new EP. One of its remaining MEPs says she refuses to work with the AfD; another has reportedly come to the same decision; and a third was not invited by the AfD to join its new group.
Przed chwilą powołaliśmy zupełnie nową grupę polityczną w europarlamencie: Europę Suwerennych Narodów❗️Zostałem wybrany na jej współprzewodniczącego. Członkami grupy są trzej europosłowie z @Nowa_Nadzieja_, @EwaZajaczkowska, @MarSypniewski i ja. Grupa liczy na razie 25 członków,…
— Stanisław Tyszka (@styszka) July 10, 2024
On Wednesday afternoon, Stanisław Tyszka confirmed that he and two other Confederation MEPs, Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik (pictured above left) and Marcin Sypniewski, are joining the new “Europe of Sovereign Nations” group.
The Sovereignists, as the group will also be known, is dominated by AfD, which had 15 MEPs elected last month, meaning it holds more than half of the reported 28 MEPs currently set to join the group, which will be the smallest in the new European Parliament.
Other members include Spain’s Se Acabo La Fiesta (SALF) and Bulgaria’s Revival, which provide three MEPs each, as well as France’s Reconquete, the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), Hungary’s Our Homeland Movement (MHM), Slovakia’s Republic Movement and Lithuania’s People and Justice Union.
Történelmi nap. Megcsináltuk: Perceken belül megszületik az új európai pártcsaládunk és EP-frakciónk, már itt vagyok az Európai Parlamentben, ahol aláírjuk az alapító nyilatkozatot. Szuverén Nemzetek Európája – ez lesz a nevünk. Egyelőre 28 EP-képviselőnk van, 9 országból, de… pic.twitter.com/hCD9U8GKEp
— Toroczkai László (@ToroczkaiLaszlo) July 10, 2024
The three Polish MEPs joining the Sovereignists all come from one of the groups that make up the Confederation alliance. Their right-wing libertarian New Hope (Nowa Nadzieja) party, led by Sławomir Mentzen, was founded by (and previously named after) former MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke.
However, two MEPs who come from the National Movement (Ruch Narodowy), a nationalist element of Confederation, have refused to join the Sovereignists.
The pair, Tomasz Buczek and Anna Bryłka (pictured above right), are reportedly in negotiations with another new group, Patriots for Europe, recently set up by Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party and subsequently joined by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN).
Last week, Poland’s largest opposition party, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), confirmed that it was rejecting overtures to join the Patriots for Europe and instead sticking with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group that it leads along with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI).
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In a statement on social media, Bryłka said that she would not work with the AfD because of the German party’s support for the Nord Stream pipelines bringing Russian gas to Germany and because of “the statements of some members of the group, which are directly contrary to the Polish national interest”.
Bryłka did not specify which statements she was referring to. But various comments by leading AfD figures downplaying Nazi crimes have provoked particular anger in Poland, which suffered enormously under German occupation during the Second World War.
PiS MEP Arkadiusz Mularczyk said that it was “shocking” that some Confederation MEPs had agreed to join with AfD. “I only hope that they will educate their German colleagues about the history of World War Two,” he told the Niezależna news website.
Robert Biedron, an MEP and one of the leaders of The Left (Lewica), accused the Confederation trio of “fraternising with neo-fascists who need to be cordoned off”.
Trzech posłów Konfederacji sprzymierzyło się z AfD. Mularczyk dla https://t.co/wmb3SA14g6: „To szokujący sojusz”.
Więcej na https://t.co/elwAa96aXC #NiezaleznaPL https://t.co/BJ8DiRRWyc
— Niezalezna.PL (@niezaleznapl) July 10, 2024
The last of Confederation’s MEP’s, Grzegorz Braun, who hails from the far-right monarchist Confederation of the Polish Crown (KPP) group, will reportedly sit as an independent in the European Parliament.
German daily Die Welt reported that AfD did not invite Braun to join the Sovereignists because they did not want to be associated with him due to his statements on the Holocaust. Braun has a long history of antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust revisionism.
In January this year, Braun was stripped of immunity by Poland’s parliament to face charges over an attack on a Jewish Hannukah ceremony that took place in the parliamentary building.
Prosecutors have charged Grzegorz Braun, the far-right MP who attacked a Jewish ceremony in parliament, with the crime of insulting a religious group, which carries a potential prison sentence.
He has also been charged over a number of other incidents https://t.co/oSMecQMEB4
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 9, 2024
Main image credit: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
