Spain’s Vox party hosted a conference in Madrid on Saturday on the theme of “Make Europe Great Again.” This theme echoes U.S. President Donald Trump’s famous slogan, and the conference marked the first time that the leaders of the various parties in the Patriots for Europe bloc have met since Trump took office last month.
The conference speakers included Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders, Estonian Conservative People’s Party leader Martin Helme, French National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italian Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, and others who are members of the Patriots for Europe bloc in the European Parliament. The Patriots for Europe bloc was formed after last year’s European elections to bring together several of the continent’s right-wing populist parties to pursue common interests.
Orbán is the European national leader who is closest to Mr. Trump, having supported him unequivocally in all three of his presidential campaigns and having met with him several times in person.
The prime minister began his speech by addressing Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, in English. He pointed out that he has spent 19 years as prime minister, but also 16 years in opposition, and therefore knows a great deal about the path from opposition to taking power.
“The name of this road is suffering,” Orbán said. “The name of this road is pain.” He indicated that the path to power is a matter of balancing one’s desire to serve one’s nation with the pain of being under constant, brutal attack. Orbán added that Vox has suffered long enough, and that now is the time for it to actually enter government.
The Hungarian prime minister then switched to Hungarian for the rest of his remarks (which he referred to as not a language, but a “secret code” for Hungarians).
Orbán pointed out that in the thirteenth century, the daughter of a Hungarian king married King James I of Aragon. When Queen Violant came to Spain, she brought her Hungarian bodyguards with her. These bodyguards fought alongside the Spanish against the Muslim occupiers in the south of the country in part of what has been called the reconquista, or reconquest of the Iberian peninsula, by historians.
Then, in 1686, thousands of Spanish soldiers fought alongside the Hungarians to expel the Turks from Budapest, which they had conquered 145 years earlier, Orbán said, continuing the historical narrative.
Four hundred years later, Spain was the first country to announce its support for the Hungarian uprising against Soviet occupation during the October 1956 revolution.
“Dear Santiago, you are Spanish and you say reconquista,” Orbán said. “I am Hungarian, and I say I understand you and I am with you.”
Orbán also reminded his audience that the legendary Hungarian football player Ferenc Puskás, who played several matches in Spain, once said that “the people of Madrid are decent, selfless, and good friends, and most importantly, they love football.”
Switching to the present, Orbán explained that what makes his country interesting today is not its size or its military, but rather its politics. “We have been building a free, conservative, and Christian Hungary for 15 years,” he said. “Hungary today is a laboratory of conservative politics.”
The prime minister then pointed to some of his party’s successes, including ending unemployment, establishing the lowest corporate tax rate in Europe, and enshrining in its constitution that a marriage can only exist between a man and a woman.
Orbán warned his colleagues that the European Union’s bureaucrats, the American Democratic Party, and George Soros’ network are all conspiring against them.
“They are hunting us because we are defending our countries,” he said. “And what have they done in the meantime? They have ruined Europe. Because of Brussels, the European economy has collapsed. Because of Brussels, our money is being sent to Ukraine for a hopeless war. Because of Brussels, Europe has been flooded with migrants.”
“As the dark joke goes, it’s time to look for new conspiracy theories, because the old ones have all turned out to be true,” Mr. Orbán added.
Then the prime minister struck a more optimistic tone. “The world has been changed in only a few weeks by the Trump tornado,” he proclaimed. “An era has ended. Yesterday, we were the heretics; today, we are the mainstream!”
Orbán said that the entire world now sees that political parties such as those at the conference represent the future, predicting that further electoral successes over the next two years will result in a “big and strong” coalition to take on the forces of liberalism.
“Fifteen years ago, when we Hungarians stood up to the progressive global elite, they told us it was madness, it was impossible, it was political suicide,” he counseled. “But we didn’t listen to them. We did it, and today I stand before you. Hungary is living proof that it is possible, that it can be done.”
“President Trump has just started, and he will succeed,” Orbán added.
The Hungarian prime minister concluded his remarks by addressing the Spanish in particular. “Today, the progressive global elite is stealing Europe from the people,” he said. “According to the [Greek] myth, Europe was stolen by a god disguised as a bull. You in Spain understand how to deal with a raging bull. There is a patriotic party here in Spain: Vox. It has a great, brave, patriotic president: my friend Santiago Abascal, who is the bravest bullfighter in politics I have ever seen. So, Santiago, let’s tame this raging bull together!”
Orbán’s enthusiasm about the opportunity offered by Donald Trump’s presidency was echoed by others in attendance. “We are living in an extraordinary time, when we have a rare opportunity to abandon the path of decline and fundamentally change our countries and civilization for the better,” Estonia’s Martin Helme said. “Donald Trump’s victory in America has dealt a blow to the globalists, who are now in confusion.”
— Patriots.eu (@PatriotsEU) February 8, 2025
Full speech of @martinhelme in the #MakeEuropeGreatAgain Madrid Summit.
«Let's turn back the tide of immigrants willfully invited to Europe by our evil and corrupt elites who hate us, it's no longer enough to stop them from coming. We must send them back». pic.twitter.com/Kf2vazUMPd
Matteo Salvini addressed the issue of the trade tariffs that President Trump has threatened to impose on the European Union, saying that the real economic danger to Europe is Brussels rather than the U.S. “If thousands of auto workers are losing their jobs today, it is not Trump’s fault, but the economic, industrial, and environmentalist suicide that is being forced upon us by Brussels,” he said.
Salvini likewise praised President Trump’s ending of funding for the World Health Organization as well as his attacks on the International Criminal Court, saying that Europe must follow suit in order to protect the needs of its citizens.
Marine Le Pen agreed with the other speakers about the opportunity offered by the new administration in Washington, saying that “the American election should wake up the old continent.”
“The Americans are telling us to be strong,” she added. “But to do that, you have to be yourself – you have to give the best of yourself to your people and to the world.”
Le Pen also suggested that it is only the parties represented in Patriots for Europe who are in a position to work fruitfully with the Trump administration. “We are the only ones who can talk with the new Trump administration,” she proclaimed.
