Europe’s far-right parties rally in Milan after Orbán’s defeat

Thousands of far-right supporters filled central Milan on Saturday as nationalist leaders from across Europe staged a rally targeting irregular migration and what they cast as suffocating bureaucracy from Brussels, marking the movement’s first major show of unity since Viktor Orban’s election defeat in Hungary.

Backers of the Patriots for Europe party, now the European Parliament’s third-largest bloc, gathered before Milan’s Duomo cathedral. A heavy police presence kept them apart from a separate anti-fascist demonstration that also drew thousands.

Matteo Salvini, the League leader who organised the event, said the square — dominated by what he called a “symbol of Christianity” — was the right setting for a rally promoted under the slogan: “Without Fear – in Europe Masters in our Own Home!”

Among those joining at Mr Salvini’s invitation were Jordan Bardella of France and Geert Wilders of the Netherlands. Mr Salvini serves as deputy prime minister in the coalition led by Giorgia Meloni.

Yet one absence stood out. Hungarian figures were missing from the stage after Mr Orban, one of the Patriots’ co-founders, was removed from office following a crushing election defeat to the pro-EU opposition leader Peter Magyar, ending 16 years in power.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez joined a progressive gathering in Barcelona

“Dear Viktor, you have defended the borders and fought human traffickers and arms traffickers. Let us all continue this fight together, for freedom and the rule of law,” Mr Salvini told the crowd.

Before last week’s election, Marine Le Pen, the president of France’s National Rally, travelled to Budapest in an effort to reinforce support for Mr Orban, arguing that 2027 was becoming “absolutely fundamental” for the far right.

She said key elections ahead in France, Italy, Spain and Poland could hand far-right forces victories that would give them “the means to radically change the course of the European Union from within”.

“I’ve come here to Milan to reassure you: our victory in the upcoming presidential election is within reach.

“And we’re getting ready to say goodbye to Macron,” Bardella, her close ally, told Saturday’s rally.

Elsewhere, progressive leaders gathered in Barcelona, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Matteo Salvini’s League party faces mounting pressure in Italy

‘Faces uncovered’

Echoing Ms Meloni’s position, the League has also urged the European Union to ease budget deficit rules in response to the energy crisis set off by the war in the Middle East.

“We are going to address all the issues that are affecting European societies, in particular the issue of immigration and the ever-increasing regulations imposed by the European Commission and the European Union on European industry and on the economies of the eurozone,” Mr Bardella told reporters before the rally.

Farmers arriving on tractors to protest free trade agreements, along with motorcyclists opposing traffic restrictions, led the procession.

The event also served as a test of strength for the League in Lombardy, its heartland, and across Italy, as recent polling puts the party at only around six to 8% of voting intentions.

That decline has been years in the making: the League won 17.4% in the 2018 election and 8.8% in the most recent vote in 2022.

Mr Salvini is also facing pressure from the newly formed National Future party, created by retired general Roberto Vannacci after he left the League in February. The new party is already credited with about 3% of voting intentions.

At the same time, Forza Italia — a coalition ally in Ms Meloni’s government — is preparing a separate event for its Milan branch focused on the “social and civic engagement” of immigrants’ children in Italy.