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Yesterday in the French capital, the Patriots for Europe group, the third strongest faction in the European Parliament, elected its leaders. The group was formed last June by Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), and Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl, whose party recently won elections in Austria, although legacy parties controversially then refused to name him chancellor and allow him to form a government.
Other parties in the grouping now include France’s National Rally, led by Jordan Bardella, and the Dutch Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders.
Santiago Abascal, chairman of the Spanish Vox party, was elected president of the Patriots, with Hungarian PM Orbán congratulating him on X.
“The Brussels elite wants to silence us, but we will not give in! We don’t represent Brussels bureaucrats, we represent the European people. Our mandate is clear: protecting European families, stopping migration and restoring Europe’s competitiveness,” he posted with the hashtags #MEGA and #Patriots
Congratulations to @Santi_ABASCAL on his election as President of the @PatriotsEU Party. The Brussels elite wants to silence us, but we will not give in! We don’t represent Brussels bureaucrats, we represent the European people. Our mandate is clear: protecting European families,… pic.twitter.com/BHpE63QLSZ
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) November 16, 2024
Fidesz EP representative Gál Kinga was also elected vice-president of the party family.
“Thank you for the honor! We are building a strong Europe, proud of its traditions and based on sovereign nations. It is in vain for the left to try to stop us by any means if the majority of the people are with us. We will bring the change they voted for and make Europe great again! I will undertake the lion’s share of this work,” she wrote on Facebook.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also shared a part of his speech on social media.
“The first important lesson from President Trump’s campaign and victory is the following. We must take bold positions and be able to speak about them loudly and clearly. And may I say that there is no need to shift to the center because the center has already shifted toward us,” he said.
Using migration as an example, he highlighted that Trump committed to deporting 100 percent of illegals, and this is what Americans voted for. “This is the kind of brave leadership we need: Clear, decisive, and confident,” Orbán added, emphasizing that the Patriots for Europe group will stand strong against gender ideology, war, and migration.
In their press release from October, the Patriots reminded people that “protecting the external borders of the EU is a duty, not a crime.” It also condemned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her attacks on Orbán in the European Parliament over his stance on migration and European competitiveness but most pointedly regarding Orbán’s peace mission to Moscow and criticism of the EU’s response to the war; during the session, the EC president directly insinuated he was bringing shame to the Hungarian freedom fighters of 1956.
Orbán replied bluntly at the time about the EC, “Rather than being a guardian of the treaties, it’s a political body, a political weapon.”
However, much has changed since then. After Donald Trump was elected president of the U.S., Hungary hosted a successful EPC gathering, its largest diplomatic event ever, followed by an informal meeting of the European Council. Von der Leyen issued a statement afterward thanking “dear Viktor” for his “outstanding hospitality and organisation,” further detailing a roadmap for Europe to move forward and regain its competitiveness according to the adopted Budapest Declaration. The change in tone was real.
“Hungarian diplomacy has not been this strong in a hundred years,” Orbán said at the time, predicting that Hungary is now in a position to “inspire necessary reforms.” Such action will be the focal point of all members of the Patriots for Europe grouping in the European Parliament.