Marine Le Pen was received by Viktor Orban in Hungary to discuss “a law that is gaining strength in Europe.”

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was received in Budapest on Wednesday by nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a show of unity nine months before European elections.

The two officials, who smiled in front of their country’s flags, “reviewed an update on the situation of the right-wing, which is gaining strength in Europe, in particular ahead of the European Parliament vote” in June 2024, they wrote. on X (formerly Twitter) government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs.

They called for “together a decisive response to Brussels’ imperialist ambitions, its misguided economic policies and its pro-migrant initiatives.” Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party did not respond to AFP queries regarding the meeting.

Second European trip in a short time

The finalist of the last two French presidential elections, who was received with great fanfare in October 2021 in Budapest, likes to appear next to the Hungarian Prime Minister, a defender of “illiberal” values ​​in Europe. She was able to take advantage of a loan from a Hungarian bank worth over 10 million euros for her 2022 presidential campaign. In September she held an important meeting with far-right leader Matteo Salvini.

A good form of European populists is in power in Italy, Hungary, Poland or Finland; strong growth in Austria or Spain – suggests the presence of a huge contingent of “nationalist” MEPs in the Strasbourg hemicycle.

But Marine Le Pen’s party sees its alliances weakening: the parliamentary group Identity and Democracy (ID), which includes French RN MEPs, is effectively weakened and would welcome a rapprochement with Orban’s Fidesz party.

Supporters of the Hungarian leader left the right-wing PPE group, which constitutes the majority in the chamber, in 2021, but not by joining another faction, but by sitting among the unregistered.