Identity and Democracy Party

Identity and democracy
Party leader	Gerolf Annemans
Treasurer	Jean-François Jalkh
founding	3rd October 2014
Headquarters	Paris
Affiliate foundation	Association pour l'Identité et Démocratie Fondation
Alignment	EU skepticism , right-wing extremism , right-wing populism , nationalism
Government grants	€ 400,778 (2015)
MEPs	61/705
EP Group	Europe of Nations and Freedom (2015-2019) Identity and Democracy (from 2019)
Website	www.de-id-party.eu

The Identity and Democracy Party , until 2019 Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom ( French Mouvement pour l'Europe des nations et des libertés , MENL) is a European political party . Leading member parties are the French Rassemblement National (RN) (formerly Front National), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and the Italian Lega Nord . In the European Parliament , the members of the MENL are represented in the Identity and Democracy (ID) group. On July 2, 2019, the board decided to rename the party Identity and Democracy .

history

In the run-up to the 2014 European elections , the Front National (FN), the FPÖ, the Lega Nord and the Belgian-Flemish Vlaams Belang (VB) together with the Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) and the Slovak National Party (SNS) announced wanting to set up a common parliamentary group after the election. Leading politicians from the FN, FPÖ and VB were represented in the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF) at that time . After the election, however, the parliamentary group could not be formed because parliamentarians from seven countries could not be won as necessary. The SNS had missed the entry into the European Parliament, the also planned Sweden Democrats joined the EKR faction.

As a result, the Front National and its chairman Marine Le Pen initiated the establishment of the MENL, which took place on October 3, 2014. In contrast to the EAF, the MENL is organized as an association of parties; the EAF stopped its activities in 2017. In December 2014, the MENL was recognized by the European Parliament and granted preliminary political party funding of 1.17 million euros for 2015. After checking the expenditure of the MENL in September 2016, the European Parliament corrected the financing for 2015 to € 400,778 and reclaimed € 535,818.97 of the financing already paid.

Aymeric Chauprade was the founding chairman . After making anti-Islamic statements, he resigned from this office on February 10, 2015.

A parliamentary group was founded on June 15, 2015. The basis for this was that the British MP Janice Atkinson could be won for the group. This was excluded from UKIP after an expense scandal . Shortly before, the FN membership of the European parliamentarian and FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen had been suspended due to anti-Semitic statements. According to Atkinson, this made it easier for him to join the new parliamentary group. In addition, the two remaining MPs of the Polish Congress of the New Right (KNP) could be won as parliamentary group members. The Dutch PVV chairman Geert Wilders had ruled out a cooperation with the KNP, in particular its then chairman Janusz Korwin-Mikke , in mid-2014.

On June 16, 2015 the MPs of the MENL together with the PVV, two MPs of the Polish Congress of the New Right and Janice Atkinson, who was excluded from the UKIP, founded a parliamentary group under the name “Europe of Nations and Freedom” (French Europe des Nations et des Libertés ). The group currently has 36 members.

In January 2019, the MENL parties, together with representatives of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (EKRE), announced in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that the New European Democracy - Europe of Nations and Freedom (NED-ENF ) on. The group has not been admitted by the Bureau of the Assembly for the time being, as there are doubts whether this group is fulfilling its obligation to "respect and promote the fundamental values ​​of the Council of Europe".

In the run-up to the 2019 European elections , the then Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini ( Lega ) and representatives of the German AfD, the Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS) and the Danish People's Party (DF) announced the establishment of a large right-wing parliamentary group. Apart from these parties and the member parties of the MENL, no other members of the parliamentary group now called Identity and Democracy joined the election . When it was constituted, it had 73 members, making it the fifth largest parliamentary group. As a result, the MENL also renamed itself the Identity and Democracy Party .

Program

The ID is skeptical of the EU and against globalization . The party calls for the end of the euro and a return to national currencies, national responsibilities in relation to immigration and finances, and advocates closer partnership between the EU and Russia .

Board

The current chairman is Gerolf Annemans (VB). Jean-François Jalkh (RN) is treasurer. The board of directors also includes Marine Le Pen, Nicolas Bay (both RN), Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ), Angelo Ciocca (Lega), Janice Atkinson, Laurentiu Rebega and Michał Marusik (KNP).

Chairperson

• 2014–2015 Aymeric Chauprade
• 2015-2016 Louis Aliot
• 2016–2017 Jean-François Jalkh
• since 2017 Gerolf Annemans

Affiliate foundation

With the Association pour l'Identité et Démocratie Fondation , formerly Fondation pour une Europe des Nations et des Libertés, there is a party-affiliated foundation which, like the IDP, is co-financed by the EU.

Members

The following parties belong to the ID party:

Country	Party (s)	abbreviation	MEP	National MPs	Member since
Belgium	Vlaams Belang	VB	3/21	18/150	founding
Bulgaria	Volya	Volya	-	12/240	Early 2018
Estonia	Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond	EKRE	1/7	19/101	Mid-2019
France	Rassemblement National	RN	21/79	7/577	founding
Greece	Nea Dexia	ND	-	-	Early 2018
Italy	Lega Nord Lega per Salvini Premier	Lega	29/76	123/630 58/315	Early 2018 *
Austria	Freedom Party of Austria	FPÖ	3/19	30/183	founding
Poland	Congress Nowej Prawicy	KNP	-	-	Early 2018 +
Portugal	Chega	CH	-	1/230	July 2020
Slovakia	Sme Rodina - Boris Kollár	SR	-	11/150	Early 2019
Czech Republic	Svoboda a přímá demokracie	SPD	2/21	22/200	Mid 2016
United Kingdom	For Britain		not in the EU	-	Mid-2019

^* Leading politician since it was founded

⁺MEPs Michał Marusik and Stanisław Żółtek from mid-2015 to 2019

former members

Country	Political party	abbreviation	member
Czech Republic	Občanská konzervativní strana	OK strana	May 2015 to mid-2016

•  Bulgaria : Yulian Angelov (Member of the National Assembly , IMRO - Bulgarian National Movement , mid-2015 to early 2018)
•  Germany : Marcus Pretzell ( The Blue Party , MEP, spring 2016 to mid-2019)
•  Romania : Laurentiu Rebega (MEP, mid-2015 to mid-2019)
•  United Kingdom : Janice Atkinson (MEP, mid-2015 to mid-2019)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tom Van Grieken: Gerolf Annemans dead Europees partijvoorzitter verkozen van Bewegungsing voor een Europa van Naties & Vrijheid. December 16, 2017. From VlaamsBelang.org (Dutch), accessed January 22, 2019.
2. ^ ^{A b} European Parliament: Grants from the European Parliament to political parties at European level per party and per year. In: Directorate for Political Structures Financing and Resources - Political Structures Financing Unit, September 2016. At EuroParl.Europa.eu (English, PDF ; 532 KB), accessed on January 22, 2019.
3. ^ ^{A b} Cécile Barbière: Front National wants to found a European right-wing party. In: Euractiv.de. October 10, 2014, accessed January 22, 2019 . 
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/gannemans/status/1146033027828670465
5. ^ FN: Aymeric Chauprade veut se réconcilier avec Marine Le Pen | La Nouvelle Gazette Française. Retrieved April 15, 2018 (fr-fr). 
6. ↑ The EAF is dead! Long live the MENL! October 12, 2014, accessed April 15, 2018 . 
7. ↑ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/pdf/grants/Grant_amounts_parties%2003-2015_new%20logo.pdf
8. ^ Far-right groups ordered to pay European Parliament € 800,000 . In: POLITICO . September 13, 2016 ( politico.eu [accessed April 15, 2018]).
9. ↑ L'eurodéputé FN Aymeric Chauprade affiche sa tentative de rabibochage avec Marine Le Pen - Le Lab Europe 1 . ( europe1.fr [accessed April 15, 2018]).
10. ↑ n-tv author: Family row among right-wing extremists: This is how the Front National falls out. In: n-tv. May 5, 2015, accessed July 21, 2015 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} Niklaus Nuspliger: New right-wing populist parliamentary group in the EU Parliament: Le Pen's late satisfaction. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. June 16, 2015, accessed June 16, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Der Standard: Expense scandal with ex-UKIP MP Atkinson. In: The Standard. June 16, 2015, accessed June 17, 2015 . 
13. ↑ Robert Smolka: KNP remains non-attached in the EU Parliament. In: polen-heute.de. Poland Today June 30, 2014, Retrieved June 17, 2015 . 
14. ^ France's far right forms bloc in European Parliament . In: POLITICO . June 15, 2015 ( politico.eu [accessed April 15, 2018]).
15. ↑ https://www.bnr.de/artikel/aktuelle-meldung/neue-rechtsfraktion-beim-europarat
16. ^ Council of Europe: decision postponed to new right-wing parliamentary group. In: kurier.at. Retrieved January 13, 2020 . 
17. ↑ http://www.epgencms.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/upload/b21c6391-b025-4711-b09b-fad0d8b52645/2018_01_03_Bureau_members_MENL.pdf