An atmosphere of déjà vu reigned over the European conference of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), which gathered last week in Budapest dozens of leaders and representatives of sovereigntist and conservative parties not only from all corners of the "Old Continent" but from the Americas, the Middle East, and even Australia.
In 2016, after the surprising victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election, preceded by the not less surprising British vote to leave the EU, there was a feeling that the European patriotic forces, opposed to the idea of a Unites States of Europe, which would strengthen a federal European Union while weakening the sovereign powers of the nation-states of the Union, were on the march.
In France, Marine le Pen made it for the first time to the second round of the presidential election, in Germany the Alternative for Germany (AfD) became over night the third largest party in the Bundestag, in Austria a hard line national-conservative party was formed under young chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, in Italy a right wing coalition lead by Mateo Salvini won an election and fell apart as Salvini turned to form an anti establishment government with the populist left Five Stars movement.
Even the torn Conservative Party in the UK managed to win two elections, in 2017 and in 2019.
There was a general feeling that Europe, under the umbrella and inspiration of the first Trump administration, was moving to the right, away from the left and liberal legacy of erasing national identities, instauring multiculturalism, and encouraging mass immigration.
However, this political eruption failed to deliver. The old political establishment – some call it "deep state" – a politicized legal system, and internal quarrels within the different streams of the right European camp, stopped the patriotic wave from taking over Europe.
Too often, center-right conservative parties were those who put obstacles in front of forming full right-wing governments in different states by prefrontal coalitions with left-wing partners, such as social democrats and even the Greens.
The patriotic wave that rose many hopes and expectations within European societies of changing the course of history suffered a serious blow with the election of Joe Biden to the White House, was put on hold for a while, but didn’t fade away.
Quite on the contrary: global crises – the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine, and the ongoing mass immigration- reinforced the sovereigntist and patriotic forces in Europe.
Budapest hosts 2025 CPAC conference
The fourth yearly CPAC-Hungary conference, organized under the slogan 'The Age of Patriots,' was the first of its kind with Donald Trump as president, again.
CPAC- Hungary came into existence as the patriotic wave in the West seemed to be at one of its lowest points, fought by all means by the old establishment, ruled by the center-left. Viktor Orban‘s Hungary was considered one of the last bastions of the patriotic political forces and, therefore, was chosen to host the European version of CPAC.
Orban, who is now fighting for his political survival in the coming Hungarian general election of 2026, proudly opened the conference by stressing that with Trump reinstalled in the White House, the West is witnessing a second patriotic wave.
Indeed, since he hosted CPAC last year, not only did the US republicans win control over power in Washington and are much more determined to "drain the swamp," but first right-wing government, including Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom, was formed in the Netherlands, the Austrian Freedom Party won for the first time in European and national elections, the French Rassemblement National was the biggest group in the national parliament, and Alternative for Germany was the second biggest party in the Bundestag.
Most of these parties were kept away from power by coalitions formed by the center-right parties with the left. This evidently anti-democratic approach, aimed at "saving democracy from its enemies," only blows winds in the sails of the boycotted sovereigntist parties.
However, the European patriotic forces scored some important losses – in Spain to the socialists, in Britain to the Labour, and before in Poland to a pro-EU coalition.
This year, Orban can proudly look back at his greatest achievement: forming, after last June's European elections, the Patriots for Europe group, which became the third biggest political group in the European Parliament.
After being "ostracized" by the Conservative People‘s Party group and snubbed by Giorgia Meloni‘s more to the right group of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the Hungarian prime minister succeeded in shaking and reshaping the right side of the European political map.
He failed, though, in convincing the other right-wing groups of the European Parliament to unite and break down the traditional hold of the Center-left parties over the EU institutions.
The visionary Orban is not giving up his dream of transforming the EU into a union of patriotic nation-states. He sees it as a crucial step in the war between sovereigntists and globalists over the future of the West.
"Our European dream was that if the European nations join forces, there will be no more wars, and peace and prosperity will prevail," reminded Orban the participants of the conference in his opening speech.
He continued, "Brussels has taken this dream from us and turned it into a nightmare. Europeans don’t feel safe in their homes, streets, and countries. They are strangers in their own homes. There is no interception but an organised population replacement. Instead of prosperity, the green deal is killing our economies. Patriotic leaders are dragged to courts on show trials. Communist anarchists attack conservatives with violence. Freedom is now threatened not from outside but from within. We must change this."
Orban‘s sovereigntist plan for the future is based on four points: keeping peacenik Europe by categorically refusing Ukraine‘s accession to the EU, thus importing a war to the EU; reinforcing national sovereignty instead of common centralized economic governance; protecting freedoms of speech, press and political opinions; taking back Europe from the migrants, preserving a Christian culture and having a national-patriotic curriculum taught in schools.
These points were made by almost all the main speakers of the conference, including present and former prime ministers, leaders of parties and opposition blocs, all united in the spirit of resistance to the EU and the globalist forces behind it.
The organiser of the conference, Dr. Miklos Szantho, Director of the Budapest-based Center for Fundamental Rights, warned, though, that the globalist forces which supported the Biden administration, such as the Soros family, are now retreating from the USA to Europe and concentrating their work there.
"They will continue to activate their woke machinery“, said Szantho, "We have seen that Brussels' deep state is using every possible weapon against the conservatives. Their aim is to remove the sovereigntist government (in Hungary) and replace it with a globalist one."
One of the most acclaimed speakers at the CPAC-Hungary was Alice Weidl, co-chair of the Alternative for Germany.
This party, which succeeded recently in blocking an initiative of the German Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution to classify it as an extreme right party, is not a member of the Patriots group in the European Parliament, since the French Rassemblement National refuses to work together.
However, the invitation of Weidl to Budapest might indicate a future inclusion of this party in the Patriots, thus making the group even bigger than it is now.
Weidl, referring to her party as the "next ruling party" in Germany, strongly attacked the German conservative parties and the new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, for refusing to form a national right-wing party and preferring another coalition with social democrats:
"Establishment politics have turned Germany into a danger zone for its own citizens. It’s people suffer from mass migration, exploding crime rates, high taxes and energy prices, inflation, and the destruction of wealth. It’s why they voted out the former left-green government, only to get another government that continues the same disastrous path. In a futile attempt to evade his domestic problems, our chancellor travels the world fermenting conflicts and throwing German taxpayers' money out of the window, as we see in Ukraine. But when it comes to the daily horror of imported migrant violence and Islamist terror on the streets, our chancellor remains silent.
Merz won the election with copy-and-paste promises taken from us, the program of the AfD. The day after the election, he retracted his words in every regard. He sold his soul to the leftists and kept them in power in exchange for being elected chancellor himself. Desperately clinging to power by all means has become the primary concern of our establishment politicians. Gripped by panic, they ban laws, manipulate the constitution, and eliminate the fundamental rights of the parliamentary opposition in order to prevent a democratic transfer of power."
Weidl warned that the current German government is planning to ban the AfD.
"In their panic, they dismantle democracy," she stressed, "to exclude more than 10 million voters from proper representation, destroy the very foundations of democratic rule. It is my firm belief that the future of our civilisation is not merely a question of right versus left. Today, the true frontline runs between authoritarian centralism and bureaucratic paternalism on the one side and those who believe in and defend civil, economic, and intellectual freedom in our countries on the other. The wind of change is blowing strongly in Europe and the Western world. The future belongs to free, patriotic citizens and sovereign nations."
In her words, Weidl summed up the political struggle over the future of Europe.
Weidl, like the other participants of the conference, knows that their battle is far from being won. But, they dare believe that the age of patriots is there to stay.
