Proceedings have been opened against Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN), a registered EU-level party that includes Alternative for Germany (AfD). According to Politico, ESN could lose its status as a European political party. That would call into question not only the party’s political infrastructure at EU level, but also its funding from the European Parliament budget.
The case concerns the ESN party, not the parliamentary group of the same name in the European Parliament. The group, which has 27 MEPs, would not be formally affected by any such step.
Politically, however, the effect would still be considerable. European political parties are broader alliances of national parties rather than parliamentary factions. They coordinate campaigns, support cooperation ahead of elections and receive EU budget funds for that purpose. ESN is due to receive more than €2m in European Parliament party funding in 2026.
Europe of Sovereign Nations was founded after the 2024 European election, with the AfD playing a central role. In addition to the AfD, the party includes Bulgaria’s Revival, Éric Zemmour’s French Reconquête, Poland’s Confederation, the Czech SPD, Hungary’s Our Homeland, the Dutch Forum for Democracy and Slovakia’s Republic Movement. Its creation also reflected the AfD’s isolation within Europe’s right-wing camp. Other right-wing groups had refused to admit the party after the controversies surrounding its then lead candidate Maximilian Krah.
EU Values Become a Legal Lever
The proceedings were triggered by the Authority for European Political Parties and Foundations, the body responsible for supervising European parties and affiliated foundations. Its director, Pascal Schonard, is said to have referred in a 300-page letter to the Council of the EU to evidence that “cast doubt on the compliance” of the ESN party with EU values. Politico says it has seen the document.
Under the relevant EU rules, European political parties must uphold the values set out in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. Those include “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities”. The authority cites court rulings, screenshots and social media posts by MEPs and party lawmakers linked to ESN.
The concerns are said to center on anti-immigration, antisemitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric, including calls for “remigration” and depictions of homosexuality as paedophilia. One example concerns the Polish politician Tomasz Michal Grabarczyk of Poland’s Confederation/New Hope party. He wrote this month: “Israel is not just a criminal state. Israelis are a nation of criminals.” New Hope later retweeted the post.
The letter also focuses on Bulgaria’s Revival party. According to Politico, it says Revival cooperates openly with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and accuses it of being behind violent protests in Sofia and attacks against the European Commission delegation in February 2025.
A Case with Political Stakes
The letter also puts the AfD in the spotlight. It cites a May 2025 decision by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to classify the party as a right-wing extremist organization, along with a Cologne administrative court ruling that temporarily blocked the classification but nonetheless found parts of the party program “contrary to human dignity and freedom of religion”.
The German parliament has previously discussed whether to ask the Federal Constitutional Court to begin proceedings that could lead to a ban on the AfD. AfD MEP Alexander Sell said his party had not received the document, “meaning that we do not know the allegations being made against us”. He said he was convinced “that party bans, whether at European or national level, are incompatible with the principles of democratic will-formation”.
ESN did not respond to Politico’s requests for comment. ESN party president Stanislav Stoyanov told the watchdog on 4 May that the party had no mandate to intervene directly in the affairs of its member parties. “However, we remain committed to upholding the core values of the EU through constant dialogue with the related parties”, he said.
It remains unclear whether the proceedings will lead to ESN losing its party status. The authority has sent its findings to the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. Any of the three institutions can ask it to open a formal review.
If that happens, ESN would have an opportunity to respond to the allegations and propose measures to address the authority’s concerns. A committee of independent eminent persons would then issue a recommendation before the authority took any final decision to remove ESN from the register.
Such a decision would be a serious political blow. In effect, it would amount to a ban on ESN as a European political party, even if the national work of its member parties and the ESN group in the European Parliament were not directly affected. The most visible consequence would be the loss of EU funding. For a young party founded only in 2024 and presenting itself as a rallying point for forces beyond the established right-wing groups, it would be more than an administrative setback.