European Alliance for Freedom

The European Alliance for Freedom (EAF) is a pan-European political party of (radical) right-wing eurosceptics. It was founded in late 2010, the party was recognised by the European Parliament in 2011.^[6] Unlike in other pan-European parties, the members of the Alliance are not national parties but individuals.

The head office of the Alliance is in Brussels, Belgium, and its registered office is in Birkirkara, Malta. Franz Obermayr from Austria has been the president of the organisation since November 2012, succeeding founding chairman Godfrey Bloom. His vice presidents are the Belgian Philip Claeys and the French Marine Le Pen.^[7] The secretary-general is Sharon Ellul-Bonici from Malta.^[8]

The EAF was awarded a grant by European Parliament for 2011 of, at most, €372,753.^[6] In 2012 the EP's maximal grant dropped to €360,455.^[1] The party's affiliated political foundation is the European Foundation for Freedom.^[9]

2014 European Parliament election

Ahead of the 2014 European Parliament election, it was suggested that EAF members might form a parliamentary group of their own after the elections. The group was reported to have the support of the French National Front (FN), the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), the Flemish Vlaams Belang (VB), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), the Sweden Democrats (SD), the Slovak National Party and the Italian Lega Nord (LN). The Danish People's Party, UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Alternative for Germany refused to join the new alliance, while the more radical and anti-Semitic European nationalist parties such as National Democratic Party of Germany, the British National Party, Greek Golden Dawn and Hungarian Jobbik were not permitted to.^{[10][11][12][13]} Some media reports referred to the proposed group as the "Le Pen–Wilders alliance".^{[5][14][15][16]} In the election, the French FN performed very strongly, winning 24 seats, while the Slovak National Party failed to win a seat and the Sweden Democrats abstained from the alliance (instead joining Europe of Freedom and Democracy), leaving the FN, PVV, LN, FPO and VB as the only EAF member parties.

On 28 May, three days after the end of the elections, Le Pen, Wilders, Matteo Salvini (LN), Harald Vilimsky (FPÖ) and Gerolf Annemans (VB) appeared at a press conference in Brussels, claiming to be confident to find enough allies for forming a new group soon.^[17][18] News media reported about a competition between the proposed EAF group led by Le Pen and the existing Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group led by Nigel Farage of UKIP, both trying to win over support from newly-represented Eurosceptic, right-wing and populist parties from different countries. While the FN and Wilders preferred to form one large group, including UKIP, the British Eurosceptics decidedly rejected the idea, branding Le Pen's party as too extreme.^[19][20][21] Eventually, with MEPs from only five different member states, the proposed EAF group fell short of the parliament's requirement of seven member states to be represented in each group. Instead, their MEPs have continued to sit as Non-Inscrits.^[16][22][23]

Structure

President

• 2010-2014 – Godfrey Bloom (UK)
• 2014–present – Franz Obermayr (Austria)^[8]

Vice President

• 2010–present – Philip Claeys (Belgium);^[8] Marine Le Pen (France)

General Secretary

• 2010–present – Sharon Ellul-Bonici (Malta)

Party members

Current members

Country	Leader (s)	Party	European MPs	National MPs
Malta	Sharon Ellul-Bonici	Independent/Labour Party	1 / 6	0 / 69
Netherlands	Geert Wilders[24]	Party for Freedom	4 / 26	12 / 150

Former members

•  Belgium Gerolf Annemans^[24] (Vlaams Belang)
•  Germany – Torsten Groß^[8] (Citizens in Rage)^[25]
•  Hungary – Krisztina Morvai^[25] (independent)¹
•  Lithuania – Rolandas Paksas,^[25] Juozas Imbrasas (Order and Justice)²
•  Sweden – Kent Ekeroth^[8] (Sweden Democrats)^[25]
•  United Kingdom - Godfrey Bloom (Independent - formerly UKIP)
•  France - Marine Le Pen^[26][27][28] (National Front)³
•  Austria - Andreas Mölzer,^[25] Harald Vilimsky^[24] (Freedom Party of Austria)³
•  Italy - Matteo Salvini^[24] (Northern League)³

¹ Morvai is associated with Jobbik while not being a formal member. She quit in July 2011 due to differences with the FPÖ.^[29]
2 Paksas and Imbrasas later joined the Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy (MELD)
³ Left to form Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom (MENL)

Further reading

• de Lange, Sarah L.; Rooduijn, Matthijs; van Spanje, Joost (4 February 2014), "The ‘Le Pen-Wilders’ alliance will change European politics", Policy Network Observatory 
• Mudde, Cas (11 February 2014), "The Le Pen-Wilders alliance and the European Parliament: Plus ça change, plus la meme chose", The Washington Post 

References

External links

• Official website
• European Foundation for Freedom

Pan-European political organisations Political parties recognised by the EU Current Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Europeans United for Democracy European Alliance for Freedom Alliance of European National Movements European Christian Political Movement European Democratic Party European Free Alliance European Green Party European People's Party Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy Party of European Socialists Party of the European Left Defunct Alliance for Europe of the Nations Alliance of Independent Democrats in Europe Libertas Political parties not recognised by the EU Current Alliance for Peace and Freedom Europe – Democracy – Esperanto European Federalist Party European Pirate Party European Party for Individual Liberty Initiative of Communist and Workers' Parties Defunct European National Front Europe United Party Movement for European Reform Newropeans Other confederations of national parties Current European Anti-Capitalist Left Liberal South East European Network Nordic Green Left Alliance Defunct Euronat Platform for Transparency European Democrat Union National parties by European organisation Political groups of the European Parliament Political foundations at European level European parliamentary elections European Council composition by party Politics portal