French, Dutch far-right leaders to discuss European alliance
European right-wing politicians meet in the Netherlands on Wednesday to explore a coalition aimed at undermining the EU
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen travels to The Hague on Wednesday to discuss forging closer ties with Dutch anti-Islamic leader Geert Wilders ahead of next year’s European elections.
Le Pen will be met by Wilders at the Dutch parliament before attending a parliamentary debate, said Gaelle de Graaff, spokeswoman for Wilders’s Party for Freedom (PVV).
Known for his platinum-blonde hair and anti-Islamic views, Wilders announced Le Pen’s visit last month, saying they would explore an alliance ahead of next May’s European Parliament elections.
Both Le Pen’s National Front (FN) in France and Wilders’s PVV have said they would like to unite euro-sceptic right-wing parties, essentially to undermine the European Union from the inside.
In order to form a right-wing anti-European bloc, Wilders and Le Pen would have to find like-minded politicians in at least a quarter of the EU’s 28 member states and see 25 members elected to the 766-seat European Parliament.
If they become an official European political group, then they would benefit from subsidies, offices, a communication budget, seats on committees and speaking time in parliament proportional to their number.