Populist Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has added several new parties to his European Parliament alliance, announcing the inclusion of conservatives and populists from Finland, Denmark, and Germany.
The populist “supergroup” set to be headed by the Italian deputy prime minister also contains the Danish People’s Party (DF), the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), and the True Finns party, with Salvini meeting with key figures from all three parties in Milan on Monday, Il Giornale reports.
The new additions come after Salvini had already secured the cooperation for the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the French National Rally (RN) led by former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
Salvini announced that his new group would set their sights on the goal of a “new Europe” and accused “bureaucrats and do-gooders” of “burying the European dream.”
One of the main pillars of the group will be combatting mass illegal migration, with every party that has signed on already having anti-mass migration policies in their party manifestos.
Salvini also highlighted the threat of radical Islamic terrorism during the conference saying, “the danger for Europe does not come from the past, but from Islamic terrorism.”
He also gave his stance on Turkey’s future relationship with the European Union saying the country “will never be in Europe.”
The Danish People’s Party’s top candidate for the European Parliament Peter Kofod commented on the summit saying, “We have been thinking a lot about forming a group that more closely unites some of the common interests of national conservative parties.
“The intention is that after the election, we will start negotiations with a view to forming a new, large group of parties that are similar to us.”
“We want to fight the current EU federalism. EU co-operation can move two ways: There is Macron’s path that goes towards a federal superstate with social union, common defence, etc. And then there is the Europe of nations that is about securing the influence and interests of the nation states,” Kofod added.
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