Eurodroite

Eurodroite (French: [œɾɔdɾwatə]; English: Euroright) was an alliance of far-right political parties in Europe that took part in the 1979 European Parliament election. It did not operate as a political party or a group in the European Parliament because it only had 4 seats, all held by the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement. The Group of the European Right became its formal successor following the 1984 European Parliament election.

History[edit]

Giorgio Almirante, the president of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), envisioned to create an alliance of far-right political parties from Europe.^[1][2] Almirante said that the objective of the alliance would be to "prevent the European Parliament shifting to the left" and that it would be strongly anti-communist.^[1] At the founding congress of Eurodroite on 19 April 1978, Almirante's MSI was also joined by the French Party of New Forces (PFN) of Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour and New Force (FN) of Blas Piñar.^[3]

Shortly before the formation of Eurodroite, Tixier-Vignancour was supposed to be a candidate of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front.^[1] Another meeting of the Eurodroite was held on 27 June in Paris, with about two thousand participants, according to the Le Monde diplomatique newspaper.^[1][4] Left-wing organisations held a counter-protest to the meeting in Paris.^[4] Le Pen was critical of the Eurodroite project because of the participation of PFN.^[1]

In the 1979 European Parliament election, MSI was the only party from the Eurodroite that crossed the threshold, obtaining four seats. It was thus unable to form a group in the European Parliament.^[5]

The Eurodroite alliance was succeeded in 1984, when the Group of the European Right was officially formed.^[6] FN and the National Political Union (EPEN) of former military dictator Georgios Papadopoulos were members of this new group, while PFN was replaced by Le Pen's National Front.^[3]

Ideology[edit]

The Eurodroite was a far-right alliance composed of neo-fascist parties.^[7] It opposed the rise of Eurocommunism.^[8]

Members[edit]

The following parties were members of the Eurodroite alliance.^[1][3] The FN and EPEN did not contest the 1979 election, as Spain and Greece were not yet member states of the European Union.^[1][9]

Country	Name			Ideology	MEPs
Italy		Italian Social Movement	MSI	Neo-fascism Italian nationalism	4 / 410
France		Party of New Forces	PFN	Neo-fascism Anti-communism	0 / 410
Belgium		Party of New Forces	PFN	Neo-fascism Neo-Nazism	0 / 410
Greece		National Political Union	EPEN	Metaxism Greek nationalism	Not in the EU
Spain		New Force	FN	Neo-fascism Francoism	Not in the EU

See also[edit]

• European Right (1984–1989)

References[edit]