European far-right distances itself from Trump after Orbán's defeat

BrusselsDonald Trump's return to the White House seemed poised to further boost the growing European far-right. Leaders like Giorgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen, Santiago Abascal, and, among many others, Geert Wilders, celebrated the New York magnate's victory with great fanfare. However, the constant threats and humiliations from the President of the United States against European Union member states and the war in Iran have been met with great animosity in the community bloc, leading some voices on the European far-right to advocate for maintaining distance from the American leader. An electoral strategy that has intensified this week, after the explicit support of the Trump administration for Viktor Orbán did not contribute in any way to preventing the electoral defeat of the acting Prime Minister of Hungary. the electoral defeat of the acting Prime Minister of Hungary.

The most openly critical European leader of the President of the United States this week has been the Italian Prime Minister. Giorgia Meloni, although she has argued with Trump by defending Pope Leo XIV, has clearly distanced herself from Trump just after losing the referendum on judicial system reform and, among other things, has openly opposed the war initiated by the United States and Israel in the Middle East. This stance has angered Trump and caused a rift between the two leaders. "He doesn't want to help us in the war. I am dismayed [...]. I thought he had courage, I was wrong," the US President criticized in an interview this Tuesday with the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Before the interview, however, Meloni's collaborators had already come out to criticize the ties of the European far-right with Trump and suggest that the support of the American administration for Orbán harmed them electorally. "Hungarians don't want to be told who to vote for," declared Carlo Fidanza, a deputy from the Brothers of Italy party.

Similar statements came from some voices within Germany's main far-right party. AfD deputy Matthias Moosdorf pointed to "ostentatious friendship" as one of the causes of Orbán's defeat in a tweet shared by other influential figures in the German formation. Furthermore, the AfD representative urged not to fall into the same mistake as the acting Hungarian Prime Minister and not to applaud the White House's "madness."

The rift between the French far-right and Trump arrived even earlier. The leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, criticized from the outset the attack by the US and Israel against Iran and the Pentagon's aggression against Venezuela. Voices from the party had also called for distancing themselves from the President of the United States much earlier due to Trump's constant threats with tariffs against the EU and invading Greenland.

In this regard, the head of the European think tank CEPS, Karel Lanoo, points out in a conversation with ARA that he is not "surprised" by the distance Le Pen has put between herself and Trump. "It is a typically French move, distancing oneself from Washington," he points out. However, the expert sees it as more significant that the rest of the European far-right parties are following suit, attributing it to the fact that they consider it to be losing them votes. In this regard, Lanoo gives the example of far-right leader Nigel Farage, who was also a close ally of the President of the United States. "Trump's attacks on the United Kingdom eventually took their toll on him," he adds.

Even Vox, which always avoids criticizing Trump, came out in defense of Meloni against the US president's criticisms. The spokesperson in Congress for the Spanish far-right party, Pepa Millán, defended the "sovereignty" of European states and the figure of the Pope, while she assured that "nobody wants a war" and called "hard to understand" some of the outbursts of the US leader, such as those he has made throughout this week.

The balances of the far-right

The EU policy expert at the research center EPC York Albrecht points out in a conversation with this newspaper that Orbán's defeat is not only due to the explicit support he received from the US administration, but above all to internal issues related to the economic situation, infrastructure, the welfare state, and the authoritarian drift. Nevertheless, he points out that supporting Trump, who has initiated the war in the Middle East, is "contrary to the narrative of peace that Orbán defends in Ukraine", in addition to being a war that "has had economic effects on Hungarians" and that "is very, very unpopular" in the country.

However, as Albrecht points out, the far-right distancing itself from Trump does not mean they are breaking completely with the US president. In this regard, the EPC researcher believes that, despite the threats against European states and the war in Iran, he remains "the great figure of the international far-right, with an anti-woke and populist discourse". "They have to be very careful and find the right point in their relationship with Trump," the expert points out.