The ESN party (Europe of Sovereign Nations) was founded on the initiative of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the summer of 2024, based on the former far-right group “Identity and Democracy” (ID), which had ceased to exist earlier that year due to internal splits and a reconfiguration of far-right forces. Unwilling to lose influence, the AfD decided to initiate the creation of a new alliance of far-right and Eurosceptic like-minded parties in the European Parliament. The project officially became a party on August 14, 2024, and included: the French Reconquête, the Czech SPD, the Slovak Republika, the Hungarian Mi Hazánk, the Polish Nowa Nadzieja, the Italian Futuro Nazionale, the Bulgarian “Revival”, and the Dutch FvD.
The goal of its activities became systematic opposition to Euro-Atlantic expansion, the promotion of the xenophobic concept of forced “re-emigration,” and the de facto internal sabotage of the European Parliament’s work through the submission of numerous comments and amendments to key resolutions, which delayed their adoption.
Today, the ESN faction in the European Parliament has 27 MEPs (out of 720 total seats). It should be noted that upon registration, the ESN leadership signed a declaration committing to uphold the fundamental European values and principles enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union — in particular, human dignity, equality, the rule of law, and human rights. However, as soon as it received official status and access to the European Parliament’s budget funds, the party launched subversive activities against these very foundations. Through calls for the forced deportation of migrants, the spread of xenophobia, antisemitism, and the use of hate speech, ESN MEPs completely nullified the obligations they had taken on.
A Russian espionage trail has followed the ESN party almost from the moment of its creation. The focus has been on AfD MEP René Aust (co-chair of ESN), who is directly linked to the Kremlin lobby through his advisor and head of staff, Roman Bayar, of Russian origin, who previously coordinated the “Eastern direction” in the AfD youth wing.
In the spring of 2024, journalists from the German publication t-online gained access to internal participant lists, applications, and financial reports of the Russian state “Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund” — a structure patronized by Russian intelligence services, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and funded from the Russian state budget. The data showed that Roman Bayar reported to his Kremlin handlers and the fund’s leadership on the work he had done, and received talking points and narratives from Russian diplomats to promote the idea of launching “Nord Stream 2” and lifting sanctions — points that later appeared in the official speeches and resolutions of AfD MEPs. Notably, the Russian fund fully covered Bayar’s flights, stays in luxury hotels, and “representation expenses” during his trips to Russia.
The journalists also used data from the observation of Russian diplomatic missions in Berlin and Leipzig by German counterintelligence (BfV). Counterintelligence recorded Bayar’s frequent visits to the Russian Consulate General in Leipzig. By comparing the dates of these visits with the names of Russian diplomats he communicated with, it turned out that his main contacts were precisely those consular employees whom the German government declared persona non grata and expelled from the country in 2023 for “activities incompatible with diplomatic status.”
In April–May 2024, during a joint investigation by Belgian and Czech law enforcement agencies, employees of René Aust’s Brussels office were implicated in cases involving the coordination of propaganda campaigns with handlers from the exposed and banned Kremlin network called Voice of Europe.
In December 2024, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on financial irregularities by Reconquête leader Sarah Knafo, who was accused of misusing European subsidies and funding fictitious assistants. French MEPs from Reconquête and their Hungarian colleagues from Mi Hazánk, both part of ESN, provoked a wave of outrage in Brussels in early 2026 with calls for “re-emigration” (the forced deportation of hundreds of thousands of European citizens of foreign origin). These statements, recorded in official reports of European services, became the basis for the European Commission and the anti-fraud office OLAF to launch a thorough investigation into ESN in July 2026. The probe includes determining whether European taxpayers’ money is being used to finance neo-Nazi and xenophobic propaganda, as well as Kremlin information campaigns.
According to voting monitoring by the analytical center Political Capital, the ESN faction was recognized as the most pro-Russian and pro-Chinese force in the 10th European Parliament. Data from the MEP Analytics platform (EU Matrix) as of early 2026 showed that ESN representatives demonstrated a complete lack of support for Ukraine during votes, casting all their votes against resolutions condemning Russian aggression or introducing new sanctions. In addition, they made undeclared trips to Russia and China.
Another complaint from the European Commission against ESN concerns “procedural terrorism” and sabotage. When it comes to important defense or financial bills (for example, on macro-financial assistance to Ukraine or strengthening customs control at EU borders), ESN deputies submit hundreds and thousands of minor amendments. Under the rules, European officials are required to translate each amendment into all official EU languages, conduct a legal review, and put them to individual votes — significantly delaying decision-making.
For ESN, the European Parliament’s rostrum is not a place for lawmaking, but a platform for populism and video clips. Research by the DisinfoLab media laboratory and the TikTok Observatory monitoring project in September 2025 revealed that videos by ESN MEPs (particularly from AfD and the Polish Confederation) receive 5–7 times more reach in TikTok and X algorithms than speeches by centrist party representatives. ESN deputies speak for one minute during debates, read an aggressive emotional manifesto about the “dictatorship of Eurocrats” or “stealing European money for Ukraine,” then leave the chamber, edit the footage with dynamic music, and release it on social media. The goal of this tactic is to create the impression among their million-strong audience that the European Parliament is an ineffective and hostile supranational authority.
The in-depth investigation launched in July 2026 by the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations (APPF) and the European Commission is based on a 300-page dossier of compromising materials on the party. If violations are proven, ESN will lose its status as a European party and its annual funding of €3 million.
Despite its small size, “Europe of Sovereign Nations” has turned into a tool for blocking strategic decisions and a source of spreading xenophobic and far-right ideas. The proven financial, personnel, and ideological dependence of its leaders on Russian intelligence services and Kremlin funds turns this political project into a classic “fifth column” of Russia in the European Parliament.
The banning of ESN at the pan-European level by the APPF is a necessary step to eliminate Moscow’s hybrid influence channels and preserve the unity and security of the entire European community.