Trump-style victory the aim for Europe’s far-right as leaders praise US president at Madrid conference

Europe’s far-right political leaders have praised Donald Trump and said they wanted to “Make Europe Great Again” as they met in Madrid.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italy’s deputy premier Matteo Salvini, French National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen and Netherlands’ PVV party founder Geert Wilders were among those at the gathering organised by Spanish far-right party, Vox.

Referring to what he called “the Trump tornado”, Mr Orban said the Republican candidate’s victory in November’s US presidential election and subsequent return to the White House had “changed the world in just a few weeks… yesterday we were heretics, today we’re mainstream”.

Cheered by around 2,000 supporters waving Spanish flags, speakers railed against frequent right-wing targets such as immigration, leftists, migrant rescue NGOs, and “wokeism”.

The names of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were jeered loudly.

There were regular calls for a new “Reconquista”, a reference to the Medieval re-conquest of Muslim-controlled parts of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian kingdoms.

As for Mr Trump’s threat to place high tariffs on European imports, Mr Salvini and Vox president Santiago Abascal downplayed the danger and said EU taxes, such as the Green Deal, and regulations are a bigger risk to Europe’s prosperity.

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Germany’s election later this month represented a “historic opportunity”, Mr Salvini said, as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is polling in second place, behind centre-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s Union bloc.

Mr Salvini said Germany, which he called “the engine of Europe” had “come to a halt in the face of the most disastrous government [led by Olaf Scholz] of the post-war period”.

The opening speech, by former Estonian finance minister Martin Helme was interrupted by a topless activist from feminist group Femen chanting “not one step back against fascism” in Spanish before she was ejected.

Defending Europe’s borders against illegal immigration was another topic touched on by every speaker at the two-day event, even though irregular border crossings into the European Union fell sharply in 2024, according to data collected by the bloc’s border control agency Frontex.

Ms Le Pen said the European leaders at the gathering, whose Patriots for Europe group has 84 seats in the European Parliament, “are the only ones that can talk with the new Trump administration”.

The group polled a combined 19 million votes in May’s European elections, but some of the EU’s most influential parties in that camp – such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, AfD and Poland’s Law and Justice – have refused to join.

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party said in a statement it rejected what it described as a “coven of ultras”, adding: “They won’t succeed in making their black-and-white world view prevail in this country”.