Blatant power grab by Macron. I hope the VVD won't join. My wet dream would be a new European party formed by the more right-wing ALDE parties (VVD, Venstre) and the less explicitly Christian Democratic parties of the EPP (like the Moderates in Sweden) but that's probably not going to happen as I don't think there is a lot of space in Europe for a party like this.
Honestly, what would this party's focus be? Aren't liberals already in ALDE and mainstream conservatives in the EPP? That would probably be too niche tbh.
Not to mention that if enough EPP MEPs leave that would mean that S&D would become the largest group and would probably try to get the EU Commision president. (of course it would depend on the election results)
Still, looking at both groups my guess is that these parties might be willing to join such a group (keep in mind that I don't know much about them to begin with):
EPPSDS (Slovenia): 3 MEPs
Kokoomus (Finland): 3 MEPs
Forza Italia (Italy): 12 MEPs
Vienotība (Latvia): 4 MEPs
Nationalist Party (Malta): 3 MEPs
PSD (Portugal): 6 MEPs
TOP 09 (Czech Republic): 4 MEPs
PNL (Romania): 8 MEPs
Moderates (Sweden): 3 MEPs
ALDEFDP (Germany): 3 MEPs
Open VLD (Belgium): 3 MEPs
MR (Belgium): 2 MEPs
MDL (Bulgaria): 4 MEPs
Venestre (Denmark): 2 MEPs
Reform (Estonia): 2 MEPs
VVD (Netherlands): 3 MEPs
Total: 65 MEPs, represented in 15/27 countries.
Of course, this means that EPP would lose the Commision presidency to S&D as they'd only have 171 MEPs (compared to S&Ds 189).
Such a group would be the 4th largest in the EU parliament, but mostly because they cannibalized others. Honestly, the liberals-mainstream conservatives division (ALDE-EPP) seems better to me.
