The New Observer
January 28, 2016
The “Europe of Nations and Freedoms” group in the European Parliament—a coalition of patriotic parties and individuals from eight European nations—is set to hold its first official congress in Milan, Italy, on January 28 and 29, a press release from that organization has announced.
The Europe of Nations and Freedom (French: Europe des nations et des libertés, ENL) was launched on June 15, 2015, after extended negotiations between the French National Front (FN), the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), the Italian Lega Nord (LN), the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Belgium’s Vlaams Belang (VB), and the Polish Congress of the New Right (KNP).
The 36-strong group gained two additional members when former UK Independence Party member Janice Atkinson, and former Conservative Party of Romania (Partidul Conservator, PC) member Laurentiu Rebega, joined in their private capacities.
The two-day congress will, according to the press statement, be held under the banner of “a freer, stronger Europe” and will focus on the invasion crisis and terrorism “that threatens each of our respective nations.”
The meeting will see the major leaders of all the parties—including HC Strache of the FPÖ, Marine le Pen from the FN, Geert Wilders from the PVV, Matteo Salvini from the LN—gather in the Northern Italian city for one of the most high-powered such conferences ever.
Interviewed by the Wirtschaftsblatt, Salvini said that they would “also discuss the lifting of sanctions against Russia, which should be regarded as a friend of Europe. We will present our concept of Europe as the current house collapses. We will explain to the 500 million Europeans how we are going to rebuild it.”
The event is already sold out, but it can be watched live on the Internet on piuliberipiuforti.org, and on live Radio RPL (radiopadania.org/streaming).