Italian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.Credit:ANSA/AP
These groups will try to work together to derail projects supported by pro-European politicians like French President Emmanuel Macron,especially over issues on which mainstream parties in the assembly are divided,according to a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations,set to be published this week.
Far-right political parties for the first time could win enough seats that would allow them - at least on paper - to disrupt the EU's legislative business.
And while that would require a hodgepodge of parties to overcome fundamental policy differences,Italy's anti-immigration Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has already sought with mixed success to forge alliances with leaders including Poland's Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Hungary's Viktor Orban to usher in a"new European spring".
"The vote could see a group of nationalist anti-European political parties that advocate a return to a'Europe of the nations'win a controlling share of seats,"the ECFR's study's authors wrote.
"Their ability to paralyse decision-making at the centre of the EU would defuse pro-Europeans'argument that the project is imperfect but capable of reform."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.Credit:Bloomberg
If far-right groups win a third of the new assembly and their leaders are able to work together at the Council of the EU,where national governments are represented in the decision-making process,they would be in a position to obstruct pro-European legislative priorities on such issues as foreign policy,reform of the euro-area,the rule of law and migration.
Steve Bannon,the one-time chief political strategist of US President Donald Trump,has set up a Brussels-based organisation called The Movement to galvanise populist leaders and parties into a loose alliance to help them gain a foothold in the European Parliament.