France’s Le Pen courts far right in Hungary, Poland
France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen reached out to her counterparts in Hungary and Poland, both already in government, during a European elections campaign meeting in Brussels.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party would be welcome in the Europe of Na-tions and Freedom (ENF), a small right-wing European Parliament political grouping to which her National Rally belongs, she said.
Le Pen referred to the rift that has opened up between Orban and the much more influential conservative European People’s Party (EPP) grouping in the European Parliament.
“It’s for Mr Orban to see if he finds more political coherence with the members of the EPP who have voted against him,” she said.
In March, the EPP suspended Fidesz indefinitely from the bloc after a billboard campaign in Hungary that suggested European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker and liberal US bil-lionaire George Soros were plotting to flood Europe with migrants.
Although the bloc had discussed the possibility of expelling Fidesz, it settled on suspension be-cause of fears among some members that Orban might join forces with Italy’s Matteo Salvini’s far-right Northern League.
Last Tuesday Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister met Orban in Budapest for talks.
They agreed to cooperate more closely on anti-migration measures after the European elections. Both are hostile to the European Union’s current line on migration.
Salvini has called on nationalist parties scattered across the European Parliament to join forces and form a new alliance after the election.
But in an interview with French weekly Le Point, Orban said he had no links to Le Pen and in any case would not make any alliance with her.
Le Pen, asked about her attitude to Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), said they were still welcome to join the ENF bloc.
Poland’s PiS euro-MPs currently belong to the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and views the close links that both Le Pen and Salvini have with Russia with suspicion.
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