The ESN political group doesn’t face sanctions, and the only effect that AfD MEPs would feel would be the lack of a political party to provide support in future EU elections or to coordinate policy with like-minded factions.
The ESN party and ESN group were founded by Alternative for Germany in the wake of the 2024 EU election, and include Bulgaria’s Revival, France’s Reconquest (led by Éric Zemmour), Poland’s Confederation, Czechia’s SPD, Hungary’s Our Homeland Movement, the Netherlands’ Forum for Democracy, and Slovakia’s Republic Movement. In 2026 it is slated to receive over €2 million in subsidies from the European Parliament.
The watchdog — the Authority for European Political Parties and Foundations — said it had found evidence that “cast doubt on the compliance” of the ESN party with EU values, the director of the authority, Pascal Schonard, wrote in a letter. The missive was addressed to the Council of the EU — comprising representatives of national governments — and was seen by POLITICO.
The watchdog monitors whether political parties and foundations comply with the EU rules that govern them. Those rules require parties to uphold the Union’s core values — including “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities” — as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.
In his 300-page letter Schonard says there is “evidence” that ESN members are violating EU values. The proof includes court rulings and screenshots and social media posts from MEPs and party lawmakers that display anti-immigration, antisemitic and anti-LGBT rhetoric, including calls for remigration and the depiction of homosexuality as pedophilia. One of the social media posts highlighted in the letter came from Tomasz Michał Grabarczyk, a national politician for Poland’s far-right Confederation/New Hope party, who wrote this month: “Israel is not just a criminal state. Israelis are a nation of criminals.” New Hope retweeted the post.
Neither Confederation nor Grabarczyk responded to a request for comment.
