The event was held at a luxury hotel under the slogan “Towards a common sense Europe”.

Salvini, who heads Italy’s far-right League, has been the driving force in convincing like-minded politicians across the continent to ditch their previous divisions and join forces before the May 26 election.

“We’re broadening the community, the family,” Salvini told the press on Monday.

“We’re working for a new European dream.”

The meeting reflects growing confidence amongst far-right and “sovereignist” parties that, for the first time since the EU was formed 60 years ago, they can win enough seats in parliament to have a major say in European policies.

“We want to reform the European Union and the European parliament, without destroying them,” Joerg Meuthen, chairman of the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany party (AfD), said.

“We want to bring radical change.”

Meuthen told journalists the new EU parliamentary bloc would be called the European Alliance for People and Nations.

It will initially involve at least 10 parties drawn from the three groups that currently house various nationalist forces.

Far-right populists like Salvini’s League are in government in Italy, France, Austria, Poland and Hungary, and are expected to do well in the European elections at the end of next month.

But differences in political outlook and policies may prevent them from forming a united front.

While the parties share the broad goals of returning power to EU member states and further curbing immigration, they fail to agree on economic and social policies, making it hard to create a coherent group within the EU parliament.

While Italy’s League, Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) and Hungary’s Fidesz highlight Europe’s Christian cultural roots, France’s National Rally (RN) has steered clear of taking a similar stance in a country where the majority is in favour of secularism.

Furthermore, Salvini and Marine Le Pen of the RN have both praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, a view not shared by PiS in Poland or the Finns Party.

However, these divisions don’t seem to bother Salvini, who said he plans to hold a rally in Milan on May 18 to bring together his new alliance.