The fox in the chicken coop: How the far right is playing the European Parliament

Using their political group status, far-right parties have gained not just visiblity and power, they’ve also reaped significant financial benefits in order to grow at home while simultaneously attacking the EU project, writes Christin Tonne

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, left, speaks with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban at an EU summit in Brussels last June. Orban's Fidesz do not belong to any political group in the European Parliament, depriving them of political power and visibility. File photo: AP/Olivier Matthys

Several countries in the European Union are currently governed by far-right political parties. 

In Hungary, Fidesz, under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has been progressively dismantling the country’s constitutional protections of the rule of law and democratic institutions. Poland, under its ruling Law and Justice party, has shown equally worrying trends.