Viktor Orbán Backs Marine Le Pen for French Presidency

BRUSSELS — Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hopes Marine Le Pen is the far-right candidate in next year’s French presidential election.

Speaking to journalists during his first visit to Brussels since losing power in April, Orbán declined to say if he would campaign for Jordan Bardella, the 30-year-old MEP who looks poised to be the National Rally’s candidate next year. Instead, Orbán threw his support behind Le Pen, the far-right party’s leader in the French parliament, who is barred from running in elections for five years after a conviction for embezzling European Parliament funds. An appeal against that ruling will be held on July 7.

National Rally MEPs sit alongside those from Orbán’s Fidesz party in the European Parliament, as part of the Patriots for Europe group.

“Whoever becomes the presidential candidate of the French Patriots, we will support him or her, but my personal loyalty — and that of Fidesz — is first and foremost bound to Ms. Le Pen,” Orbán said.

The former Hungarian leader, who was prime minister for 16 years, said it was because of Le Pen that he had decided to affiliate Fidesz with the Patriots rather than with the European Conservatives and Reformists group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“That is why we consider her [Le Pen] a legend,” Orbán said. “So we really hope that the French people will have the opportunity to express their support for her in the upcoming presidential election.”

“Hungarians are a romantic sort of people, you know,” Orbán said. “From time to time, they’ll prioritize old friendships even at the cost of short-term political damage, and they’ll stand by them.”

In March, Le Pen hailed Orbán for blocking a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine.

“I’d prefer it if we didn’t have to wait for other countries to take good decisions,” she told reporters on a trip to Budapest.

Le Pen — whose father Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the precursor to the National Rally party — has welcomed handing over the reins to Bardella if she fails in her legal appeal against being blocked from running.

“It’s a relief for me that, if I’m prevented from standing, he could stand in my place,” she said in an interview with France Télévisions on Sunday.