Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy

Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD²) was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group that existed during the Seventh European Parliament, with significant changes to group membership.

Europe of Freedom
and Direct Democracy
European Parliament group
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group logo
NameEurope of Freedom and Direct Democracy
English abbr.EFDD
French abbr.ELDD
Formal nameEurope of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group in the European Parliament
IdeologyEuroscepticism
Right-wing populism
Direct democracy
Political positionRight-wing to far-right
European partiesAlliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (2014–16)
From24 June 2014
To26 June 2019
Preceded byEurope of Freedom and Democracy
Chaired byNigel Farage (UKIP/BXP)
David Borrelli (M5S) (Until 2017)
Websitehttp://www.efddgroup.eu/

In 2017, it was one of the seven political groups of the parliament. This group was opposed to European integration. Twenty-four out of its 47 MEPs were from the United Kingdom, representing the UK Independence Party.

Its president was British politician Nigel Farage, who was first elected for the UK Independence Party, and then became an independent in 2018 before becoming leader of the Brexit Party in 2019. David Borrelli of the Italian Five Star Movement was co-president until January 2017, when he had to resign the co-presidency after a failed attempt by his party to transfer to the ALDE group.

The parliamentary group was originally linked to the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE); however, the Alliance later ceased activities in 2016 after an auditors' inquiry found misspending of EU funds and was eventually dissolved on 24 May 2017. Nonetheless, the group continued its activities until 26 June 2019, when it was also dissolved following the 2019 European Parliament election.

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