Europe’s Far Right Inspired By Trump’s Win

Europe’s far-right populists are hoping that the return of Trump – a transatlantic ally who promotes the same conservative Christian values and shares the same disdain for progressive politics – will help to serve their interests back home and further normalize their anti-immigrant, nation-first rhetoric.

“Congratulations President Trump… Never stop, always keep fighting and win elections,” Geert Wilders, the populist leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), wrote on X on November 6.

The president-elect and his camp celebrated the Republican’s political comeback as a triumph against liberal immigration and other Biden-era policies

Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel also offered her congratulations and declared that it was not “woke Hollywood” but rather the “working American people” that decided the election.

For Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, of the Fidesz party, it was a “much needed victory for the world.”

However, Armida van Rij, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, stresses the importance of not viewing far-right parties in Europe as one homogenous group. Yet, there are common overlapping themes among Europe’s populists that are also present in Trump’s playbook.

Van Rij points to the “anti-woke, traditional values, anti-green transition and the anti-migration agenda.”

Another common theme between Trump’s agenda and his European allies, Van Rij told CNN, is the “strong notions of what an American is and looks like, and what a European or a Hungarian or an Italian or a French person is or looks like.”

This sentiment is clear when looking at the language employed by the far-right; In Austria, provocative anti-migration slogans such as “homeland love instead of Moroccan thieves” are the norm for the Freedom Party (FPÖ). In Germany, anti-Islam sentiment has been palpable in AfD posters with the tagline “Burkas? We prefer bikinis.”

Such rhetoric seems shocking to many who read it. But, according to analysis from the Center for European Reform, a London-based thinktank focused on European integration, Trump will strengthen Europe’s far-right by “normalizing and amplifying” their ideas. Trump himself has employed controversial rhetoric while vocalizing his hardline views on immigration, calling the US a “garbage can for the world.”

One far-right leader who on the surface looks set to benefit from a Trump presidency is Hungary’s long-standing leader, Viktor Orbán. He has been among the most prominent of Europe’s populists voicing his support for Trump and even said he toasted to his election victory with vodka, according to the Agence France-Presse.

CNN/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma