The group includes Mr Salvini’s League, as well as France‘s far-right National Rally (formerly National Front), Austria‘s Freedom Party and the Netherland‘s Party for Freedom. Those parties have long sat together in the European Parliament.

But Mr Salvini was also joined on Monday by the far-right Alternative for Germany‘s co-leader Joerg Meuthen, Olli Kotro of the Eurosceptic populist Finns party, and Anders Vistisen of the right-wing, populist Danish People‘s Party.