By David Latona
MADRID (Reuters) – Leaders of far-right parties in the European Parliament’s third-largest voting bloc, Patriots for Europe, praised Donald Trump’s return to power at a gathering in Madrid on Saturday held under the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”.
The event featured Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italian deputy premier Matteo Salvini, as well as the leaders of France’s National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, and the Netherlands’ PVV party, Geert Wilders.
“The Trump tornado has changed the world in just a few weeks … yesterday we were heretics, today we’re mainstream,” Orban told around 2,000 supporters, most of whom waved Spanish flags.
All the speakers railed against immigration and most called for a new “Reconquista”, a reference to the Medieval re-conquest of Muslim-controlled parts of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian kingdoms.
Earlier, former Estonian Finance Minister Martin Helme kicked off the rally following a video message by Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. His speech excoriating what he called “leftists” was interrupted by a topless activist from feminist group Femen chanting “Not one step back against fascism” in Spanish before she was ejected.
Other themes included frequent right-wing targets such as “wokism” – a term used pejoratively by some to describe left-leaning political views on race, gender and sexuality – migrant rescue NGOs, European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose names were met with loud jeers.
Patriots was formed after the May 2024 European election and consists of 86 MEPs from 14 countries, representing a combined 19 million votes. Madrid was chosen as venue for their first official summit so that Patriots’ president Santiago Abascal, who leads Spain’s Vox party, could host.
Spain’s ruling Socialist Party said in a statement it rejected what it described as a “coven of ultras”, adding: “They won’t succeed in making their black-and-white world view prevail in this country”.
Vox has steadily gained ground in several polls over the past months. According to the Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS), it garners the strongest support among young men, members of the military and law enforcement.
Despite Patriots’ stated goal of unifying Europe’s nationalist conservatives, some of the EU’s most influential parties in that camp – such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, Alternative for Germany and Poland’s Law and Justice – have refused to join.
(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
