Patriots party prepping up grand far-right lovefest.
The newly created European Union far-right party the Patriots for Europe, home to populists like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and France’s Marine Le Pen, will hold a “Make Europe Great Again” rally in Madrid on Feb. 8, two officials told POLITICO.
The rally’s headline is a tribute to United States President Donald Trump’s campaign and rhetoric, which the Patriots party is now emulating across Europe.
The Patriots party, a brainchild of Orbán that has a €5 million annual budget, was founded after the June 2024 European election to bring together Europe’s populist far right and influence Brussels from within its institutions.
Of the 720 lawmakers in the European Parliament, 86 are a part of the Patriots, making it the third largest political group.
Over in the European Council, the Patriots are currently only represented by Orbán but that could change with the current shift of political power across Europe. Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which is part of the Patriots, is in government coalition negotiations, with its leader Herbert Kickl on course to become the country’s chancellor.
Meanwhile, National Rally’s Le Pen is at the top of polls in France and could score the presidency in the 2027 election, while the Czech Republic’s anti-establishment ANO party and its leader Andrej Babiš are on course to lead the country after October’s national election.
