Italy’s Northern League confident far-right can form EU parliament group

ROME (Reuters) – The leader of Italy’s anti-euro Northern League party said he was confident that far-right parties would manage to form a Eurosceptical group in the European Parliament, despite their failure to do so by an initial deadline on Tuesday.

The League and fellow anti-euro parties from France and the Netherlands failed to garner the required 25 adherents from at least seven of the EU’s 28 member countries to form a group when parliament convenes on July 1.

However, after the parliament’s initial sitting a group can be formed at any time, and Northern League leader Matteo Salvini said it was only a matter of time before he and his allies drew sufficient followers.

“We are a bit behind but we are all convinced that we will soon form a parliamentary group that is truly alternative to all the others,” Salvini said in a statement that echoed similar defiance from Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front.

Until they do so, they will have to present themselves as “non-attached” members in the parliament.

That would deprive the parties of the extra funding, staffing and speaking time that are allocated when they form multi-national party alliances.

A rival group of Eurosceptical parties that includes Nigel Farage’s United Kingdom Independence Party and Italy’s Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, a fierce adversary of the League, succeeded in forging such an alliance last week by snagging a defector from Le Pen’s National Front.

“At the opening session we will all be on our own but then we’ll pick up the negotiations again. We are already in contact with parties from Hungary, Romania and Slovenia,” a Northern League official told Reuters.

(Reporting by Sara Rossi, writing by Gavin Jones; Editing by Gareth Jones)