CPAC Hungary, an overseas version of the most prominent right-wing political event in the US, kicked off for the fifth time in Hungary. The event is hosted by the publicly funded Cenre for Fundamental Rights.
The event has traditionally served to build links between US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s political backbench, but the leading figures from US politics have largely kept their distance.
This year, they were replaced mainly by Orbán’s European far-right allies, such as Alice Weidel of the German AfD, Herbert Kickl of the Austrian Freedom Party and Santiago Abascal, president of the Spanish Vox.
The Patriots for Europe political group are also holding a grand assembly in Budapest on Monday to express support for Orbán.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis was set to open the CPAC event, but had to return to Prague because of a suspected arson attack at a weapons factory producing drones for Ukraine.
The opening address was instead delivered by Georgian Prime Minister Irakhli Kobakidze, who was elected in 2024 amid allegations of electoral fraud as a candidate of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream.
The most prominent figure on the guest list is Javier Milei, Argentina’s libertarian-populist president.
Trump did not attend the event, despite high hopes by the Fidesz party that he would do so, in a move to demonstrate his alliance with Orbán. The US leader did send a video message, endorsing Orbán for next month’s general election.
“You have to understand, he keeps on winning, something that we all share in common, we want to win. But we want to win fairly, evenly, but decisively,” the US president said.
Vice President JD Vance did not travel to Hungary either.
Orbán: ‘Trump’s victory has made the world a better place’.
Orbán opened his keynote at CPAC Hungary by saying that Donald Trump’s victory had made the world a better place, remarks that come as the joint US-Israeli war on Iran sends economic shockwaves across the globe.
“Gender and woke have receded, Christianity can be proudly embraced, (…) progressive censorship is over. Without retaliation, we can say we don’t want migration. The green frenzy has been curbed, the created world can only be preserved in accordance with economic interests”.
According to Orbán, a major right-wing realignment is underway globally, with “the epicentre in the United States, and Hungary as the outpost of Europe”.
“We have realised that if we want to defeat the progressive globalists, we must also think in an international framework,” he added.
Orbán argued that the institutions of the European Union are among the last strongholds of the progressive left globally, despite that most EU member states are governed by centre-right parties, which largely shape national policies.
The Hungarian prime minister added that the goal of the progressive left, is to keep the so-called patriotic forces—which are typically far-right, but sometimes left-wing or liberal nationalist and populist parties—out of power.
“We are in a domestic, but difficult terrain,” the Hungarian prime minister said. “A domestic terrain, because Hungary has been the strongest bastion of national conservative forces in the European Union for 16 years. And a difficult terrain, because the greatest victory for progressives would be to bring down this bastion”.
“My friends, the stakes are higher than ever: if we win here, we will not only defend Hungary, but we will also break down the progressives’ gate in Brussels. We will win this election and then we will not stop, we will move forward,” Orbán added.
Other CPAC Hungary keynote speakers include Dutch far-right Geert Wilders, Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel and Austria’s far-right Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl.
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