The Technical Group of the European Right (, abbr. ER) was a

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

political group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

that operated in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

between 1989 and 1994. It was led by the neo-fascist National Front of

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's presi ...

. Its members also were The Republicans and

Vlaams Blok Vlaams Blok (, VB; ) was the name of a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform.Erk, 2005, pp. 493-502. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. The part ...

. In the aftermath of the

1994 European Parliament election The 1994 European Parliamentary election was a European election held across the 12 European Union member states in June 1994. This election saw the merge of the European People's Party and European Democrats, an increase in the overall numbe ...

, ER was dissolved due to not obtaining enough seats to continue as a group.

History

Following the 1989 elections, the Group of the European Right lost its

Ulster Unionist The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist oppositi ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

EPEN MEPs. The situation was further complicated when the perennial problem of the European far-right, its inability to form transnational alliances, reasserted itself when

MEPs A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...

from the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Republikaner party refused to ally themselves with the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

MSI due to disagreements over the status of South Tyrol. Eventually, the "Technical Group of the European Right" was formed from MEPs from the French Front National,

Republikaner and Belgian

parties. In the

1994 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1994. Africa * 1994 Botswana general election * 1994 Guinea-Bissau general election * 1994 Malawian general election * 1994 Mozambican general election * 1994 Namibian general election * 1994 South Afr ...

, the Republikaners failed to reach the 5% cutoff point for German elections and lost all its MEPs. The Technical Group of the European Right no longer had enough MEPs to qualify as a Group and its MEPs returned to the ranks of the independents.

Members

Sources

Searchlight
ref name="searchlight070201
"Far right forms new group in European Parliament", Searchlight, February 2007
/ref>
Australian Nationalist Ideological, Historical, and Legal Archive: Theories Of The Right: A Collection Of Articles
ref name="anihl01

/ref> ttps://archive.today/20121128183204/http://home.alphalink.com.au/~radnat/theories-right/theory3.html The French And European Extreme Right And Globalization, Harvey G. Simmons/ref>
European Consortium for Political Research, University of Essex
ref name="t1s15
Party Switching in the European Parliament: why bother?

BBC News
ref name="t1s16
Who's who in EU's new far-right group
/ref>
Europe Politique
ref name="EuropePolitique1989Results

/ref>
European Parliament MEP Archives
ref name="t1s54
European Parliament profile of Jean-Marie Le Pen
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:European Right (1989-1994) 1989 establishments in Europe 1994 disestablishments in the European Union Eurosceptic parties Far-right parties in Europe Former European Parliament party groups Nationalist parties in Europe Political parties disestablished in 1994 Political parties established in 1989 Right-wing populist parties Technical parliamentary groups