“Make Europe Great Again”. Under this motto this weekend came together in a hotel in the Spanish capital Madrid leaders of radical and extreme right-wing parties from all over Europe for the first top of Patriots for Europe (PFE), a growing alliance of nationalist parties. Around the Marriott hotel- close to the airport- police buses block all inputs and outputs. Armed agents are posted every few meters. In black vans, men ride laps around the building where Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders and Viktor Orbán speak.
The meeting attracts a lot of attention: all two thousand places available were quickly sold out. “It’s a beautiful day for the patriots,” says a supporter of the radical Spanish Vox, a 66 -year -old woman dressed in a white body warmer with matching white pants. She doesn’t want to give her name because she distrusts the press. “Our moment has arrived, Trump has shown us. The time of communism and socialism is over. Sánchez ‘days have been counted ”, she grins wide with her Spanish flag in her hand. “With all due respect,” her partner is reasonable. “Europe stands for freedom, that’s why we are here. You don’t hear here with your appearance. Earlier in Saudi Arabia, “he points to the headscarf of one of the reporters.
You don’t hear here with your appearance. Earlier in Saudi Arabia
Those who could no longer buy a ticket can follow the event via a live stream. You can see how the five major radical-right politicians sit next to each other in the front row. Host Santiago Abascal, leader of the Spanish Vox, in the middle. On his left is Marine Le Pen, who is already dreaming of a French election victory in 2027. On his right side, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini are sitting. They grin at the cameras.
PVV leader Geert Wilders is also in the front row, but a bench away, next to the Czech Andrej Babis, who has a good chance of winning the elections in his country again this year and to become prime minister, and the influential Hungarian MEP Kinga Gál. Wilders occasionally comes into the picture, but he is by no means the only one in the Madrid Marriott hotel who can claim power and influence.
Since last year’s European elections, the Patriots have been the third block in the European Parliament, larger than the liberals and the Greens, while there are another radical-right block and an extremely right block in parliament. That is not yet translated into power: the middle parties keep the patriots out of it. The patriots do participate in national governments, with Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands as lighting examples.
It is the success stories that all patriots are in Madrid, including the nationalists who do less well in their own country, such as Abascal from Vox. “We are winners,” says Wilders on Saturday when he addresses the room, pointing to the places in governments that his colleagues and himself have obtained. He provides a “Golden Age” for Europe, as Donald Trump would have ushered in the US.
Wilders, who is announced as “one of the most powerful voices that defend European identity, security and freedom of expression,” says little about the Netherlands or about the Schoof cabinet. He also does not speak about elitist politicians who ‘dilute’ their culture through mass immigration, as he did a year ago in a speech in Budapest, just before the cabinet was formed. He often insists on the same subjects as the rest: his opposition to immigration and everything that smells of Woke.
As the only one, Wilders explicitly puts down the history of the ‘Reconquista’ as a fight against Islam
But on one plane Wilders goes further than the rest: Islam is much more important in its argument. Like many speakers for him, he starts the “reconquista”, the “recapture” of Spain on the Arabs during the Middle Ages. Wilders is the only one explicitly portraying that history as a fight against Islam. “We will never forget that the Spaniards were the first to turn the tide of history,” he holds up his audience in Madrid. “You were the first to reduce Islam and restore the rich Christian heritage in your country.”
A strategic move for Vox
For Santiago Abascal, this meeting is a chance to put Vox on the map internationally and at the same time strengthen the domestic position of the party in Spain. His chairmanship of the Patriots for Europe gives the Spanish party more weight within the radical-right movement. The party always focused on maintaining Spanish identity: prohibiting separatist parties, preserving bullfighting and reducing immigration.
Where Abascal was more moderate than Wilders, he also becomes brighter in his anti-Islamretoric. “Islamism destroys our way of life. We are Christians. Europe is Christian ground and we have to protect that, “he says with loud applause from the two thousand spectators.
An internal crisis within VOX gave this meeting extra interest for Abascal. Vox left the group of European Conservatives and Reformers (ECR), led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and joined the Patriots for Europe, of which Vox leader Santiago Abascal now IS.
This step led to an internal crisis within the party. Last Monday, Juan García-Gallardo boarded, spokesperson for Vox in the Castile region and León and a confidant of Abascal. He refused to put two party members out of the party, as the leadership had asked. The party top accused them of criticizing the lack of democracy within Vox and the switch to the group of Orbán.
This dismissal has further increased the tensions within Vox. While the party is organizing the meeting in Madrid with other extreme and radical rights parties, former VOX members are setting up a new political movement. Although the new party is not yet official, according to insiders, Vox is concerned about possible competition.
Influence Trump
The sound of Donald Trump sounds in the speeches. “We have to guard our limits, our freedoms. They try to destroy us legally and physically, “says Abascal. “We saw it in the US. They wanted to throw Trump in and kill. That’s why we are so happy with his victory. “
The slogan of the event, “Make Europe Great Again” (Mega), is a direct reference to Trumps own Maga movement. The alliance Patriots for Europe, who was invited to Trumps inauguration in January, maintains close ties with the ultra -conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in the US. The cooperation between these groups shows how the extreme right -wing movement is getting better organized worldwide.
Video messages of the Argentinian President Javier Milei, the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and the Austrian FPö leader Herbert Kickl with the message “Viva La Libertad” are received with applause. But the loudest applause get the extreme right -wing leaders when they address the audience in Spanish. “Viva España!” The room answers as with one voice: “Viva!”