Nigel Farage ‘walked out’ of talks to form Eurosceptic Brussels supergroup with Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini
NIGEL Farage has reportedly walked out of talks to form a “supergroup” of Eurosceptics in the European Parliament.
He allegedly said he would sign up his Brexit Party’s 29 MEPs — the joint largest single party in Brussels after last week’s elections — only if he became leader.
A source said Mr Farage told Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen it would need his “star quality and recognisable face” for their “Europe of Nations” gang to take off.
But Salvini and Le Pen were said to be put off by his demands which included transferring his staff on their current pay.
Salvini and Le Pen are also said to be wary of appointing a leader who may have to leave the Parliament in just four months’ time, if Britain quits the bloc on October 31.
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They also believe Mr Farage will be in a weaker negotiating position in a month’s time if Italy’s Five Star Movement leave the EFDD as expected.
That would consign the group to the history books, leaving the Brexit Party leader in desperate need of a new political home in Strasbourg.
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