A right-wing commentator sees the joint statement of European right-wing parties in Warsaw as a harbinger of a conservative renaissance. A left-wing pundit, on the other hand, concludes that PM Orbán has failed to unite Europe’s ‘populist far-right’.
Hungarian press roundup by budapost.eu
Background information: on Saturday, the Warsaw Summit of conservative leaders of Europe concluded with a joint statement, championing the idea of a ‘Europe of Nations’ against efforts to create a European federation. Signatories included Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen and Jaroslaw Kaczynski. They agreed to cooperate against illegal migration and in defense of national sovereignty.
In an interview with Magyar Nemzet, Zoltán Koskovics, analyst of the pro-government think tank Center for Fundamental Rights, sees the Warsaw Summit as a harbinger of a ‘conservative renaissance in Europe’. Koskovics believes that the conservative parties attending the meeting represent tens of millions of Europeans who have no voice in the EU. Koskovics predicts that this coalition can halt the further centralization of Europe, stop immigration and defend national cultures against ‘imperial social engineering’.
Népszava’s Róbert Friss thinks that the Warsaw Summit was a failure, as its ‘right-wing and far right’ participants did not establish a ‘brownish international’ coalition. The left-wing columnist interprets this as PM Orbán’s failure to become the leader of Europe’s ‘populist far-right’. Friss goes on to speculate that Poland backed out of a closer cooperation, when it realized that it needs a strong Europe to defend itself from Belarus and Russia. Friss nonetheless fears that sooner or later the deal will be concluded, and it will further deepen the cleavage within the EU.
In the featured photo (from left to right): Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Viktor Orbán, and National Rally leader Marine Le Pen. Featured photo by Zoltán Fischer/PM’s Press Office