Marine Le Pen was one of the attendees at the Patriots.eu conference (Image: Getty)
Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, Geert Wilders, and other hard-right European leaders are planning to “make Europe great again” and have told the EU establishment its time is “over”, during a landmark rally in Madrid.
Party leaders from the newly formed Patriots for Europe bloc in the European Parliament met in the Spanish capital to set out their agenda for the future of the continent.
“We are living in an historic age, and my message to all the old leaders from Macron to Scholz, to your own Pedro Sanchez: It’s your time. It’s over now. They are history,” Mr Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) told the 2000-strong crowd.
Evoking the spirit shown by President Trump in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt against him, André Ventura, leader of the far-right Chega party in Portugal, said: “We have to do what Trump has told us, fight, fight, fight. We have to reconquer a Europe that is ours and that belongs to us. A Christian Europe”.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán addresses the conference (Image: Getty)
French presidential hopeful Le Pen emphasised that the re-election of was a global watershed for the Right.
“We are facing a truly global turning point… everyone understands that something has changed. Meanwhile, the seems to be in a state of shock,” she said.
The conference wasn’t just a European affair. The event hosted Kevin Roberts, president of the US conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, and saw video messages from Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and Argentina’s President Javier Milei.
VOX’s Spanish MEP Jorge Buxadé told Euronews on Friday: “Patriots is a transatlantic party, but we are also open. It is not just an alliance with the North— the United States—but also with the South. That is where VOX plays a key role, bridging the connection with Milei and Peña [Santiago Peña, leader of paraguayan conservative party]”.
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Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, speaks at the event (Image: Getty)
Leading politicians from the ‘Patriots for Europe’ EU political group (Image: Getty)
Patriots is the third largest bloc in the European Parliament with 86 members.
Ms Le Pen’s Rassemblement National from France, Mr Orbán’s Fidesz from Hungary, Matteo Salvini’s Lega from Italy, Mr Wilders’ Dutch PVV, and Andrej Babiš’ Czech ANO party, are the most notable parties in the group.
Firing a warning shot at the European People’s Party and Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats – the two largest EU blocs – Buxadé added: “We are no longer just the future—we are the real, immediate future”.