Since taking office, President Trump has been trying to intimidate the security and economies of European countries, striving to control Greenland, and has promised to “undetectable” slap the nation with tariffs. Even the party, which appears to be his natural ally, is tense. Some have quietly returned toe-back from the US president.
However, Saturday was not a day of conflict. The leaders of the far-right party in Europe came to Madrid, at least on the surface, as it was the equivalent of a bold name booster rally of the new Trump era.
There were marines from the French far-right National Rally. Geert Wilders, a Dutch populist. Matteo Salvini, leader of Italian league party. They all revealed that they shared Trump’s accusations against what they viewed as “waking up,” “gender theory,” and environmentalist orgy.
For them, the US president blew the final barrier that limited political parties to political margins. The taboo had collapsed.
“Trump’s tornadoes have changed the world in just a few weeks,” Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban told allies from the stage of the summit, where the slogan “makes Europe great again.”
“We were heretics yesterday,” he said. “We’re mainstream now.”
In addition to the recurring themes on the far right of Europe, it also labels the media’s “parasites” and beats liberal elites and denies the “invasion” of Muslim immigrants.
For example, Salvini criticized the World Health Organization and the International Criminal Court. Trump has withdrawn the US from WHO and issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC
Wilders appeared to mimic Trump’s language as he said voters were asking them to “expel illegal aliens and criminals.”
Trump’s election represents “the final opportunity in the Western world,” said Aphroditi Latinopul, a lawmaker with the voice of the Greek far-right party.
Although Latinoplou’s party is not representative in the Greek parliament, some leaders of the rallies, including Salvini’s league and Wiles’s Liberal Party in the Netherlands, have already ruled as part of the coalition.
Other parties, such as Le Pen’s Nationalist Party, which hosted the event, and the Spanish Vox Party, have risen in recent years, but have not yet taken power.
Many of these parties are still considered pariahs of the European Parliament in Brussels, and right-wing leaders like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were organized by a group called European Patriots of that legislative body. I did not attend the event.
In last summer’s elections in the European Parliament, what many expected was a wave of support for far-right parties. However, many of these parties are popular among younger voters, and there is an opportunity to enter the government in future elections. They believe Trump’s victory gave wind to the sails.
Trump’s victory “has brought political earthquakes to the world,” Wiles said. “He brings a message of hope.”
They said they replaced Christian civilization with “sick demon utopia,” “liberal fascists,” “want to turn our children into transfreaks,” and “creeping up,” and native-born European born. They skewered “liberal fascists” who said they had replaced them with ethnic European substitutions. Immigrants. They borrowed freely from conspiracy theory.
And with Trump, they shared the dislike of the European Union – many of their countries benefited from EU funds, and Brexit has proven to be dragged by the UK economy. So almost every party denied the cry of leaving the block.
Nevertheless, it was clear that their idea of ”making Europe great again” was to demolish the current European Union. “There’s less Europe and more freedom,” Salvini said.
Some of the people present questioned the highly slogan of the event. “They say they want to make Europe great, but what do I care about protecting Europe?” Jesus Castagnon, 79, retired architect sitting in the crowd. “It doesn’t deserve it.”
At the rally, the European Union is uniformly hated as a group of unelected bureaucrats sealed in glass palaces, violating countries with excessive regulation and hampering the economy with climate policy. I did.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most mainstream European parties have come to embrace the need to spend more money on defense, and they have spoken of unity to tackle a potential trade dispute with Trump.
However, Rally hardly said there was a need to increase cooperation between EU countries. “The European Union is a pump that works the other way around,” Le Pen said. “It sucks up sovereignty from our state and institutionalizes neutralization.”
When people at the event spoke about making Europe great again, most people talked about making Europe a Christian beacon, raising individual countries and restoring pride and identity.
Instead of supporting the European Union, one of the crowds said they preferred to reestablish the Spanish colonial empire, including Spain and Latin America.
“I have very little in common with Belgians or Northern Italians,” said Gonzalo Lewis, 64, a retired meteorologist. “Unification with South America is my dream.”
Some departments could not be disguised. Some leaders praised the economics of the free market, while others supported protectionism.
Orban, who has long stood out for his closeness with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, has criticised his support for Ukraine. “For Brussels, we are giving Ukraine money in a hopeless war,” he said on Saturday.
