Join forces already, Orbán tells Meloni and Le Pen

 

Join forces already, Orbán tells Meloni and Le Pen 

 

Hungarian leader’s comments come after the French far-right leader pitched a united front to Italy’s prime minister.

 

Viktor Orbán's comments came after French far-right leader Marine Le Pen pitched a united front to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni last month. |

 

JUNE 14, 2024 12:42 PM CET

BY SEB STARCEVIC

https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-far-right-alliance-marine-le-pen-giorgia-meloni/

 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday scolded the leaders of the far-right parties in Italy and France for not making a deal to team up in the next European Parliament.

 

Such an alliance, if joined by other right-wing MEPs, “would be the largest parliamentary faction in Europe,” Orbán said in an interview with Kossuth Rádió on Friday.

 

“We used to dream about this, and then we wake up and it turns out that the two ladies cannot come to an agreement,” he added.

 

Orbán’s comments came after French far-right leader Marine Le Pen pitched a united front to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni last month.

 

“This is the moment to unite, it would be truly useful. … I think that we should not let an opportunity like this pass us by,” Le Pen told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

 

Meloni’s party, Brothers of Italy, is part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, while Le Pen’s National Rally sits within the Identity and Democracy group. Both parties scored major victories at the European election this month, achieving their best results ever.

 

If the two parties combined forces, they would be the second-largest grouping in the European Parliament, behind the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) group, and would drive the bloc rightwards.

 

But Meloni has kept her cards close to her chest, courting a potential alliance with the EPP and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

 

Orbán also claimed on Friday that NATO was planning to build “three large bases in Poland, Slovakia and Romania” to move weapons to Ukraine, efforts he pledged to keep Budapest well away from. “We don’t give a penny of money. We do not provide Hungarian territory,” he said.

 

“31 of the 32 countries of the NATO member countries want to defeat the Russians. Hungary’s position is that this is a mistake, even if we are one out of 32,” Orbán added.

 

Hungary and NATO announced on Wednesday they had reached a compromise that Budapest will not participate in the alliance’s efforts to help Ukraine, nor block NATO from providing Kyiv with security assistance and training.