Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's new alliance of far-right parties, the Patriots for Europe, was formally founded as a political group in the European Parliament on Monday.
Patriots for Europe will "fight for the future and sovereignty of the European people," Orbán's spokesman, Zoltán Kovács, said on X to announce the new group's establishment.
It is set to be the parliament's third-biggest group.
National political parties usually band together into different pan-European groups in the parliament and often vote as single blocs.
The Patriots for Europe fulfilled the requirements to set up their new group after political parties from more than seven EU countries announced their intention to join - a key threshold under the parliament's rules.
The Patriots for Europe reported that the group will have 84 members in the European Parliament for the time being. It needed a minimum of 23 lawmakers under parliament's rules.
As well as Orbán's Fidez party, the far-right League party, which is part of the Italian government, France's National Rally (RN), and the Freedom Party from Austria are also part of the group.
The group held its founding meeting in Brussels on Monday.
Jordan Bardella, from the RN, and a key campaigner in the country's recent parliamentary elections, is to be the new group's president.
The RN achieved the biggest result in France in the June 9 European Parliament elections, but in the snap elections to the French parliament, however, the right-wing nationalists unexpectedly only came third on Sunday.
The group must now inform European Parliament President Roberta Metsola of its formation. It is then expected to be officially confirmed at a parliamentary sitting next week in Strasbourg, France.
Many of the parties in the Patriots for Europe were previously with the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group, dominated by Bardella's RN.
The addition of the RN allows the Patriots for Europe group to become the third-strongest parliamentary group, behind the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), and the centre-left Social Democrats (SD), overtaking the other right-wing group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
The shifting right-wing alliances add an element of uncertainty before the EU legislature's first sitting next week to elect Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as president of the European Commission.
Von der Leyen is currently trying to build a coalition of votes to secure a majority and has courted ECR support.
The new group's manifesto has the usual far-right focus on retaining national sovereignty vis-à-vis the European Union, fighting illegal migration and pushing back EU measures to reduce climate change.
The Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), Belgium's Vlaams Belang, the Czech ANO party, and the Danish People's Party are also part of the Patriots for Europe.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is not part of the group. AfD was kicked out of the ID group during the recent European Parliament elections.
