Freshly inaugurated American President Donald Trump might not be completely on Europe’s side (and that’s a euphemism), but many of his first moves are encouragingly pointing at a new direction with less ideologically motivated policy making and more pragmatism. Along with more focus on the problems faced by of most of the population.
Think steps on curbing illegal migration, putting more focus on traditional values while ditching gender politics or pausing some questionable green investments.
There are many who’d been claiming for a while that Europe should take those very same steps.
Some of such politicians, representing many of the European Union’s conservative parties, have gathered in Madrid for a weekend get-together on February 8, hosted by Spain’s Vox party, to “Make Europe Great Again”.
And no, the slogan was not coincidental.
The prominent figures of the European Parliament’s third-largest bloc arrived with the aim to define their own set of guidelines for the next four years to come. A significant step towards even more cooperation and a chance to lay the foundation for future alliances.
They might have their own differences among themselves (and with other conservatives, sitting in different blocs, like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni), but they have a common ground.
Those parties have been pushing for the same political changes for a decade or more.
Dutch ‘far-right’ leader Geert Wilders didn’t ‘mimic’ President Trump’s language about illegal migrants, he’s been saying the very same thing pretty much since the beginning of his political career (that’s the 1990’s). Long before Trump has decided to try his hand at politics.
Donald Trump’s second inauguration was hailed, anyways. In Wilders’ views, it ‘brought a political earthquake to the world’ and the American president ‘brings a message of hope’. Marine Le Pen also emphasized that Trump’s election wasn’t simply a mere alternation of power (a.k.a. business as usual), or as ‘the democratic outburst of a nation in decline’, but a ‘true global shift’.
For a long time, these parties (labelled as ‘far-right’ or ‘nationalists’). Now, they represent a combined of 19 million votes. And counting.
The group’s members have been gaining ground nationally, as well: these parties have consistently performed strongly in several countries during the last couple of years.
A clear sign of the population’s disappointment with the current direction of politics, pursued by the ‘mainstream’ parties. Wilders’ own PVV party has been in government since May 2024, Mr Viktor Orban’s FIDESZ party has been governing Hungary since 2010. Thus, he was only head of government among those present – but the group hopes that this will change in the nearby future. (Think France, for example.)
The Spanish location almost naturally led to parallels with the ‘Reconquista’, the series of military campaigns during seven centuries, that ended in 1492 with the fall of the last Muslim bastion (the Nasrid kingdom of Granada).
It’s not a well-known fact, but the Reconquista didn’t only mean expelling the Muslim invaders of the Iberian Peninsula. It also played an indispensable role in forging the countries that today are Spain and Portugal, helping to develop national identities.
Geert Wilders received standing ovation for the reminder on that historical moment, ‘you were the first who rolled back Islam and restored the rich heritage of Christianity in your country’.
The Patriots for Europe have long campaigned for more national sovereignty, as opposed to the EU’s excessive bureaucracy and red tape.
Very few want to actually get rid of the EU, but all wish that it would focus on things that really require joint action.
And that it would focus on those issues in such a manner that is not ‘suicidal for industry’, a clear reference to the Green Transition, that, for the time being, seems only to hurt Europe’s competitiveness. In Marine le Pen’s words, ‘industrialists are openly rebelling against the absurd and suicidal dictates’ of the Green Deal.
The parties of Patriots for Europe might not agree on every detail on how to effectively address the challenges facing Europe, but they share similar views on sovereignty, freedom, identity and tradition – all considered pressing issues by the voters.
As Vox leader Santiago Abascal phrased it, the Patriots ‘are going to be the protagonists of a historic victory of the ideas of freedom and sovereignty’. In that spirit, he ‘reached out permanently’ to other parties, like Germany’s AfD. ‘We have to know how to put aside our differences and live with them’.
‘The Trump tornado has changed the world in just a few weeks …an era has ended … yesterday we were the heretics and today we’re the mainstream’, Hungary’s Viktor Orban declared.
With the next elections on the horizon, it might prove truer than ever. The more so if the ‘180-degree pivot’ on current politics, a clear demand of voters, isn’t executed.
