Orbán’s political outlook is being tested as European far-right figures converge in Hungary with a message of solidarity ahead of the April 12 election, according to the Associated Press reporting. The Monday gathering in Budapest brought together leaders from multiple countries’ far-right parties, presenting the vote as an opportunity to reinforce the influence of Hungary’s long-ruling nationalist government.
The assembly was organized under the banner of Patriots for Europe, described as a parliamentary group set up in 2024 by Orbán and allied far-right partners. The group is made up of member parties from 13 EU countries, and the AP reported that participants share opposition to immigration, preference for national sovereignty over European integration, and adherence to conservative social values.
Among the figures on stage were France’s Marine Le Pen, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, as the AP described. The event featured 13 speakers who praised Orbán and urged Hungarians to vote for him and his Fidesz party on April 12.
Le Pen framed Orbán as standing strong on “immigration, identity and sovereignty” and said Hungary had become “an emblem of the resistance of a proud and sovereign people to oppression,” the AP reported. She also told the crowd, “On April 12, you will send a new message of strength and determination to tired old technocrats in Brussels.”
Orbán used the gathering to stress the ambition of the Patriots movement within European institutions. The AP reported that Orbán said the group is “talking openly about wanting to take control of the European Union” and added, “We want to occupy and transform the center of Brussels.”
Outside the applause, the AP said the political stakes are high for Orbán because recent polling indicates he is lagging behind a center-right challenger, with the election coming only three weeks after the Budapest meeting. The AP also cited Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at Princeton University, who said Orbán has both “gained a huge amount of power in Europe” and become a darling of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, but warned, “If Orbán loses, then it loses some of that luster.”
Scheppele said Orbán’s influence across Europe’s far right has grown in part because he has been able to use the power of the Hungarian state and its financial resources to support movement-building. She described Hungary as a “safe haven,” saying it has been governed for 16 years by someone “trying to build this movement,” and the AP reported that she drew parallels between the way MAGA consolidated power quickly and a model she said was “modeled on Orbán.”
The AP reporting also connected the Hungary vote to transatlantic politics through the established Orbán-Trump relationship. It said their public compliments and backing for each other’s political campaigns have been mutual, and noted that Budapest hosted a Hungarian iteration of CPAC over the weekend. At that event, Orbán said the West was undergoing “the greatest political realignment of the past hundred years,” with the “epicenter” in the United States and Hungary as a “forward base in Europe,” according to the AP.
In a video message to CPAC, Trump endorsed Orbán’s run for reelection, and the AP reported that he praised Orbán’s defense of “your borders, your culture, your heritage, your sovereignty, and your values.” The AP said those parallels and endorsements are occurring as Orbán’s political troubles—linked by the AP to a stagnant economy, crumbling social services, and increasingly salient corruption allegations—coincide with struggles for Trump’s movement in the United States.