The right is winning votes. Is it ready to govern?

BRUSSELS, 5 October 2026 – Freedom and Sovereignty Initiative Europe will hold its first public meeting on 14 October, from 6.30pm to 9pm, to discuss whether patriotic and national-conservative parties are prepared for the 2027 elections, or whether they are punching below their weight.

France, Spain, Italy and Poland all face major contests next year. In the European Parliament, Patriots for Europe and ECR now sit roughly level as the third and fourth groups, and a conservative majority has recently forced through measures on migration and returns that the European left would have blocked a few years ago. The firewalls are under strain. They have not fallen. Centrist and centre-left parties still have the usual tools: a hostile press, grand coalitions, and legal and institutional pressure. The Commission keeps adding powers against “foreign interference” and “misinformation”, language that, in practice, targets the patriotic right.

The arguments inside that camp are just as sharp. Russia, America, deportations, the economy, and what to do with the EU itself all divide the parties. Some look vague on European reform. Others have hit an electoral ceiling and stayed there. The old complaint that MEPs “go native” in Brussels is not always unfair. Attacks on speech dressed up as child protection, or on farmers dressed up as sustainability, still get through.

Freedom and Sovereignty Initiative Europe wants to contribute towards providing answers to both the external and internal challenges facing the right in Europe. We believe that we need much greater clarity and theoretical depth on these crucial issues – and that bold ideas will be needed to break the current impasse.

This evening will be a rare opportunity to bring together representatives from patriotic, sovereigntist and genuinely conservative political forces to ask whether the European right is merely a political vibe or ready for a serious breakthrough. Is there a serious intellectual and organisational project behind the rhetoric, or does that work still have to be done?

Speakers include Christine Anderson MEP (AfD, Europe of Sovereign Nations), Virginie Joron MEP (Rassemblement National, Patriots for Europe), Jacob Reynolds, Policy Director at FSI Europe, and Frank Füredi, President of FSI Europe.

Frank Füredi, President of FSI Europe, said:

“We have never been afraid to ask the hard questions. It is right that our first public meeting raises issues that will be uncomfortable for some. They are also the questions that have to be asked if the populist movement is to win power and exercise it effectively. We intend to win.”

Tickets are €15, or €10 for students and interns.

John O’Brien, Communications Director, said:

“Two and a half hours of serious argument with smart people is worth the price of a couple of pints. Our audience is quite capable of deciding whether that is money well spent on work that matters for the future of Europe. It might also quieten the critics who panic about donations on the right while treating the institutional slush funding of the left as the natural order of things.”

The meeting description is on our website: fsieurope.org/events/so-close-so-far.

Notes for editors

Freedom and Sovereignty Initiative Europe is a think tank working on the political and intellectual challenges facing sovereigntist and national-conservative parties in Europe. The 14 October meeting is its first public event. General admission €15; students and interns €10. Venue to be confirmed.