The European Parliament group ‘Alliance of Liberals and Democrats’ (ALDE) has been renamed as ‘Renew Europe,’ it announced on Wednesday.
The move comes after Emmanuel Macron’s ‘En Marche’ party, joined the group, receiving an influx of 21 new French members.
According to EURACTIV, in France, the term “liberal” is often used pejoratively against centrists to link them with the free market right and many En Marche MEPs were opposed to the name of the group.
“There is a lot of work ahead of us. Our mission is to renew Europe. We are inspired to build a free and fair Europe,” group leader Guy Verhofstadt said.
The group is expected to play the role of kingmaker as it is in talks with the conservative EPP, socialist S&D and the Greens to form a majority in the next five-year parliament.
ALDE was formed in 2004 and was a liberal-centrist group. It had a pro-European platform focused on supporting free market economics, European integration and the single market.
It was the fourth-largest group in the previous European Parliament term.
