The Group of the European Radical Alliance (ERA) was a heterogeneous

political group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

with seats in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

between 1994 and 1999. It was formed by regionalist parties from the former Rainbow Group, although its largest and dominant member party was the French Energie Radicale.

History

In 1989 the Rainbow Group split. The Greens went off to form the Green Group, whilst the Regionalists stayed in the rump of Rainbow Group. The 1994 elections saw a considerable reduction in Regionalist representation in the Parliament, with only the Canary Isles autonomists,

Lega Nord Lega Nord (LN; ), whose complete name is (), is a right-wing politics, right-wing, federalism, federalist, populism, populist and conservatism, conservative list of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy. In the run-up to the 201 ...

, the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP) and People's Union (VU) keeping their MEPs. But Lega Nord had been suspended from the

European Free Alliance The European Free Alliance (EFA) is a European political party that consists of various regionalist, separatist and minority political parties in Europe. Member parties advocate either for full political independence and sovereignty, or some ...

following its decision to join the coalition Italian government alongside the right-wing

National Alliance National Alliance may refer to: Electoral alliances *National Alliance (Egypt) (2015) * National Alliance (Ireland) (2024 onwards) * National Alliance (Pakistan) (2002-2004) *Nation Alliance (Turkey) (2018-2023) Political parties and organizations ...

. Given this reduction in numbers, the weakened EFA were no longer able to maintain their own group. The French Energie Radicale were considered

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

enough to be possible members of the ELDR Group (their successors, the

Radical Party of the Left The Radical Party of the Left (, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG has been a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Socialist Party (, PS). Af ...

, became observers in the ELDR Party in 2006) but instead they allied themselves with the members of the Pannella-Reformers List and the rump EFA to form the Group of the European Radical Alliance. The ERA stayed in existence until 1999, when a loss of support forced the

members of the ERA to rejoin with the Green Group to create the

Greens–European Free Alliance The Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) is a political group of the European Parliament composed primarily of Green politics, green political parties. The group consists of European Green Party (EGP), part of the European Free Allianc ...

(Greens/EFA) group.

Member parties on 19 July 1994

Sources

*"Regionalist Parties in Western Europe", , de Winter & Türsan 1998
Democracy in the European Parliament
ref name="t1s1
Democracy in the European Parliament
/ref>
Development of Political Groups in the European Parliament
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Development of Political Groups in the European Parliament

ref name="t1s6">
Europe Politique
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/ref>
European Parliament MEP Archives
ref name="t1s58">
European Union Basics FAQ, by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout
ref name="EUFAQPT3">
OneEurope magazine

ELDR
ref name="ELDR2006">

References

{{European Parliament groups Former European Parliament party groups Regionalism (politics) 1994 establishments in the European Union 1999 disestablishments in the European Union Organizations established in 1994 Political organizations disestablished in 1999 Radical parties