By Emma Bubola
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has threatened European countries’ security and economies, angled to take control of Greenland and promised to “definitely” slap the nations with tariffs. Even parties that would seem to be his natural allies are nervous. Some have quietly tiptoed back from the American president.
But Saturday was not the day for disputes. Leaders of far-right parties in Europe came to Madrid for what, on the surface at least, amounted to a boldface-names rally for a new Trump era.
There was Marine Le Pen of France’s far-right National Rally; populist Geert Wilders of the Netherlands; the leader of Italy’s League party, Matteo Salvini. All made clear that they shared Trump’s charge against what they see as “wokeism,” “gender theory” and overweening environmentalism.
For them, the American president had blown through the last barriers that had confined their parties to the political margins. The taboos had been toppled.
“Trump’s tornado has changed the world in just a couple of weeks,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary told his allies from the stage of the summit, whose slogan was “Make Europe Great Again.”
“Yesterday we were the heretics,” he said. “Now we are the mainstream.”
In addition to the recurring themes of the European far right — labeling the media “parasites,” bashing liberal elites and decrying an “invasion” of Muslim immigrants — the attendees quickly turned their sights on Trump’s most recent targets.
For example, Salvini criticized the World Health Organization and the International Criminal Court; Trump moved to withdraw the United States from the WHO and issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the court.
Wilders seemed to mimic Trump’s language as he said voters were asking them to “expel illegal aliens and criminals.”
Trump’s election represents “the Western world’s final opportunity,” said Afroditi Latinopoulou, a lawmaker with the Greek far-right party Voice of Reason.
Latinopoulou’s party has no representation in the Greek parliament, but some leaders at the rally, including Salvini’s League and Wilders’ Freedom Party in the Netherlands, are already governing as part of coalitions.
Other parties, like Le Pen’s National Party and the Spanish Vox party, which hosted the event, have risen in recent years but are still out of power, often kept out by an alliance of mainstream parties.
Many of these parties are still considered pariahs in the European Parliament in Brussels, and right-wing leaders like Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy did not join the event organized by the group, which calls itself the Patriots for Europe in that legislative body.
In elections last summer for the European Parliament, what many had anticipated would be a wave of support for far-right parties did not fully materialize. But many of these parties are popular among young voters, and stand a chance to enter governments in coming elections. They think Trump’s victory has put wind in their sails.
Trump’s victory “brought a political earthquake to the world,” Wilders said. “He brings a message of hope.”
They skewered the “liberal fascists” who they said had replaced Christian civilization with “a sick satanic utopia,” the “creeps” who “want to turn our children into trans freaks,” and the supposed ethnic replacement of native-born Europeans by immigrants. They borrowed liberally from conspiracy theories.
And along with Trump they shared a distaste for the European Union — even though many of their countries benefit from EU funds, and nearly all the parties have disavowed cries to leave the bloc since Brexit has proved to be a drag on Britain’s economy.
Nonetheless, it was clear that their push to “Make Europe Great Again” meant tearing down the EU as it now stands. “Less Europe, more freedom,” Salvini said.
Some of those attending questioned the very slogan of the event. “They say they want to make Europe great, but what do I care about defending Europe?” said Jesus Castañón, 79, a retired architect who sat in the crowd. “It does not deserve it.”
At the gathering, the EU was uniformly loathed as a group of unelected bureaucrats sealed in glass palaces and intent on infringing upon nations with excessive regulation and sabotaging their economies with climate policies.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most of Europe’s mainstream parties have come to accept the need to spend more money on defense, and they talk of unity to confront potential trade disputes with Trump.
But few at the rally spoke of needing to increase cooperation among EU countries. “The European Union is a pump that works in reverse,” Le Pen said. “It sucks up the sovereignty from our states to institutionalize powerlessness.”
When people at the event talked of making Europe great again, most talked about making Europe a beacon for Christianity, elevating individual nations, and restoring their pride and identity.
Instead of supporting the EU, one member of the crowd said he preferred the reestablishment of the Spanish colonial empire encompassing Spain and Latin America.
“I have little in common with a Belgian or a northern Italian,” said Gonzalo Ruiz, 64, a retired meteorologist. “Reunification with South America is the dream.”
Some divisions could not be disguised. Some leaders praised free-market economics, while others supported protectionism.
Orban, who has long stood out even among the far right for his closeness to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, has criticized support for Ukraine.
“Because of Brussels, we are giving our money to Ukraine in a hopeless war,” he said Saturday.
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