Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and France's Marine Le Pen headlined a rally in Madrid on Saturday by Europe's biggest far-right bloc, buoyed by Donald Trump's return to power and calling for "a 180-degree pivot".
Patriots for Europe has realigned extreme-right forces in the European Union. It became the European Parliament's third-largest force after Orban helped launch it last year to pull the bloc towards the far right.
"Yesterday we were the heretics. Today we are the mainstream... We are the future," proclaimed Orban, sharing the stage with other leading extreme-right nationalists including Dutch anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and former Czech premier Andrej Babis.
Both Orban and Le Pen hailed Trump's "tornado" as showing the way forward for the EU, which the parties had condemned in a joint statement as riven with "climate fanaticism", "illegal immigration" and "excessive regulation".
"We're facing a truly global tipping point. Hurricane Trump is sweeping across the United States," Le Pen said. "For its part, the European Union seems to be in a state of shock."
Spanish party Vox, who hosted the rally, said around 2,000 people attended the event, following a dinner on Friday for Patriots leaders and Kevin Roberts, head of ultra-conservative US think tank The Heritage Foundation. The summit in the Spanish capital has adopted the slogan "Make Europe Great Again", a nod to Trump's rallying cry "Make America Great Again".
Orban is seen as one of Trump's closest EU allies, while Vox leader Santiago Abascal has highlighted the ideological affinity between the group and Trump, especially on immigration.
"President Trump, to us, is like a brother in arms," said Wilders, who called for a "reconquista" of Europe, like the wars waged by Spanish Christian monarchs to retake the Iberian peninsula from Muslim kingdoms.
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