Central Europe's right-wing populist networks up their game – DW – 06/05/2025

DW

05-06-2025

Bolstered by Donald Trump's reelection and their recent successes at the polls, Europe's right-wing populists are working together to push their narratives across Europe and build an international alliance.
Leaders and aspiring leaders from across Europe's right-wing populist political spectrum gathered in the Hungarian capital last week for CPAC Hungary 2025, the fourth Budapest edition of the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
While there, they aired their grievances over what they see as the threat to national sovereignty posed by the EU and "gender and woke madness" and heralded the dawn of the "Age of Patriots."
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the star turn at the event, preaching to the converted, some of whom had travelled from across the globe to attend.
Orban celebrated the chaos wrought by the "Trump tornado" and called on "conservatives" to seize the opportunity it offers: "We have to go home, and everyone has to win their own election. After America, we Europeans will take back our dreams and occupy Brussels!"
A 'beacon' for like-minded politicians
It's an ambitious call because although the leaders of Germany's AfD, Spain's Vox and Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) have all made considerable strides in recent elections and were represented on the podium in Budapest, right-wing and far-right populists govern few European states — except in the east.
'The European edition of CPAC is a statement of what the global far right longs for: power like Viktor Orban's,' says Hungarian MEP Klara Dobrev. Pictured here: Viktor Orban at CPAC Hungary in 2024 Image: Szilard Koszticsak/MTI/AP/Picture Alliance
Also in the spotlight at CPAC was a high-profile trio from central Europe: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, former and possibly future Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Orban has worked to make the region a hub for right-wing populists and has built a network to broadcast his success in doing so as a beacon for like-minded politicians and parties across the globe.
Spreading the message from east to west
"There's transnational learning now moving from east to west in Europe, which is pretty rare," Daniel Hegedus from the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS) told DW.
Both Orban and CPAC have done much in this respect, but so, too, have influence networks that are funded and organized by governments as well as grassroots political and religious groups that have spread across the region and beyond.
US President Donald Trump's reelection was welcomed by right-wing populists across Europe. Pictured here: Trump delivers a video message to CPAC Hungary 2023 Image: Tibor Illyes/ASSOCIATED PRESS/picture alliance
They all help to link and bind together right-wing populist forces and to push their narratives into the wider public realm.
Hungary and Poland are the key axis
Institutions funded by the Hungarian government sit at the core of these influence networks. They include the Danube Institute, Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) and the Center for Fundamental Rights, which organized CPAC Hungary 2025.
With branches spreading across the region and further afield, these bodies gather like-minded academics and activists at events and run media outlets not only in central and eastern Europe, but in Brussels and the UK, too. These outlets include The European Conservative, Brussels Signal and Remix.
MCC, which runs colleges in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria, also cooperates with staunchly conservative groups linked to the Catholic Church, such as Poland's Ordo Iuris.
Hungary and Poland form the key axis in this network, Zsuzsanna Szelenyi, a former MP for Orban's Fidesz party and now director at the Central European University's Democracy Institute, told DW.
'Igniting a chain reaction'
Analysts at Political Capital, a Budapest-based think tank, say these networks are intended to "ignite a chain reaction and bring about change on a European scale," thus halting EU efforts to stop Orban's assault on Hungary's democracy and ensure his regime's survival.
Demonstrators in Budapest march in silence, many with their mouths taped shut, in protest at a planned law that would allow the government to sanction 'foreign-funded' NGOs and media Image: Ferenc Isza/AFP
"The European edition of CPAC is a statement of what the global far right longs for: power like Viktor Orban's," says Klara Dobrev, an MEP for the left-wing Hungarian opposition party Democratic Coalition.
And it is certainly true that Hungary's strongman prime minister is leading by example. His domination of political power in Hungary wins admiring glances from others who seek to copy his playbook.
Orban wants to entrench his power with a new "transparency law" that would allow his government to blacklist organizations it feels "threaten the sovereignty of Hungary by using foreign funding to influence public life."
Critics warn that the bill, which was inspired by repressive Russian legislation, will muzzle all criticism. They also fear that other governments will follow suit.
"We're working with partners in many other EU countries," Marta Pardavi of the Hungarian NGO Helsinki Committee, told an online panel discussion on Hungary's proposed transparency law hosted by GMFUS on May 28. "They're keenly aware such laws can be reproduced. The EU is not only a single market but is becoming an illiberal market," she said.
Chilling effect on NGOs in Slovakia
Since regaining power in 2023, Slovakia's Robert Fico has pushed through similar, albeit less stringent legislation in Slovakia, with "political NGOs," such as legal watchdog Via Iuris, a particular target.
Thousands gathered in Bratislava to protest the policies of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico in January. The placard reads 'We don't want dictatorship' Image: Denes Erdos/AP/dpa/picture alliance
Katerina Batkova, executive director of Via Iuris, told the panel that the effect has been "chilling," with fear spreading through organizations about how to comply with the new rules, which appear to be deliberately vague in order to give the authorities the opportunity to crack down.
Will populist Babis return to power in Prague?
Following their celebration of Karol Nawrocki's narrow triumph in Poland's presidential election on Sunday, the region's illiberal forces are looking to the Czech Republic for their next boost. The country is due to elect a new parliament in October, and Andrej Babis and his ANO party look likely to win.
The Czech billionaire has become more radical as he hunts a return to power, and last year joined Orban, France's Marine Le Pen and 11 other European parties in establishing the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament.
"A Babis victory would allow Orban to say illiberals have a majority in Visegrad, with Poland the outlier," notes Hegedus.
Is the momentum with the right-wing populists?
Yet while Orban's networks have successfully helped push far-right narratives into the European mainstream, he's struggled for years to build a working international alliance.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attended the CPAC event in Poland last week and urged Poles to vote for Karol Nawrocki, who went on to win last weekend's presidential runoff Image: Alex Brandon/Pool/REUTERS
It remains to be seen if Patriots for Europe will offer the influence over EU policy he craves, or how stable it will prove.
The leaders of France's far right, for example, did not attend CPAC Hungary 2025. And Babis' business empire is spread across the EU, which means that he tends to tread carefully in Brussels.
US President Donald Trump's reelection has helped deepen ties and coordination with right-wing populist and nationalist groups from the US, which saw CPAC debut in Poland just ahead of the country's presidential election on June 1.
However, just how much momentum Trump might actually deliver is far from clear.
While US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a keynote speech at CPAC Poland, urging Poles to vote for Karol Nawrocki, no senior US officials travelled to Budapest for the Hungarian CPAC event.
Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan