Wilders and Le Pen join forces against Brussels Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, two of Europe's best-known far-right leaders, vowed to fight side by side in a coalition of nationalist parties in next year's European Parliament elections to bring down the "monster in Brussels." The anti-EU alliance between the French National Front party (FN) and the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) will seek to attract other eurosceptic groups as they try to capitalise on the economic misery and high unemployment plaguing the continent. "The day when patriotic movements were divided, sometimes in fear of being demonised, is long gone . . . a new era has begun," said Ms Le Pen, leader of the neo-fascist FN, as she stood next to Mr Wilders in The Hague on Wednesday. Our old European nations are forced to ask the authorisation to Brussels in all circumstances, forced to submit their budget to the headmistress . . . forced to stick to a currency that has showed its ineffectiveness . . . We want to give freedom back to our people. In addition to campaigning together, the populist leaders are planning a post-election group to shift the agenda in the European Parliament, which has gained more sway over EU legislation in recent years. Nationalist and xenophobic parties hostile to Europe's postwar project of political and economic integration have struggled to unite under one umbrella because of internal divisions. However, what they view as the interference of the EU in the daily running of their national governments and the transfer of sovereignty to Brussels - particularly during the eurozone crisis - has prompted them to join forces. "We want to decide how we control our borders, our money, our economy," said Mr Wilders, who has in the past run on an anti-immigration platform. Today is the beginning of the liberation from the European elite, the monster in Brussels. Mr Wilders said he was hopeful that Belgium's Vlaams Belang, Italy's Lega Nord and Britain's UK Independence party would join the coalition, and argued that they had much in common. Nigel Farage, head of Ukip, has so far expressed his opposition to forming an alliance, saying the FN's anti-Semitic heritage was irreconcilable with the views of his party. Other anti-EU parties that could consider joining forces in next year's European polls include the Danish People's party, Finland's The Finns, Austria's Freedom party, Germany's Alternative für Deutschland and Italy's Five Star Movement. However, eurosceptics have often had divergent views, ranging from ending the EU to quitting the euro or simply forming a looser union. The divisions have often outstripped points in common. For example, Alternative für Deutschland and the Five Star Movement, led by comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, would find it difficult to form an alliance with a neo-fascist party like the FN. Nevertheless, analysts said the FN-PVV alliance had potential because the two leaders agree on several issues, including reducing EU powers, imposing tougher immigration laws and reinstating border controls. The two remain divided on gay rights, openness to Islam and some socioeconomic matters. "The alliance certainly has legs in the sense that there is sufficient ground for co-operation," said Sarah de Lange, a comparative politics academic at Amsterdam university. "The co-operation is also strategically motivated, in the sense that it generates a lot of publicity, thereby increasing visibility and potentially further fuelling electoral success," she added.