Thousands gathered at the conclusion of the Patriots Summit in Madrid over the weekend, dedicated to “Make Europe Great Again.” The roaring chants of “Viva España, Viva Patriotas!” as the leaders of Europe’s emerging national conservative opposition bloc took the stage marked a new beginning for the movement.
These parties, leaders, and ideas can no longer be considered fringe entities to be ignored. They are not only the new mainstream who represent a legitimate challenge to the West’s postwar liberal order, but are also its most likely successors.
The Summit—aptly called that, since the Patriots have “reached the summit,” as Antonio Fúster, the national spokesman of the hosting Vox party told me afterward—took place over two days in the Spanish capital. The first day was a closed-door meeting of the Patriot leaders, while the second day they addressed the press and supporters who gathered to witness history.
Geert Wilders, the eccentric leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), whose landslide election victory back in 2023 was an early signal that the demand for strong anti-migration policies reached a critical threshold even in Western Europe, began by saying we are living in historic times that change rapidly, and national conservatives will be the majority in most countries before you know it. “My message to the world leaders, the Macrons and Scholzs, is that their time is over,” he said. “They are history, we are the future!”
He was followed by Italian Deputy PM Matteo Salvini (Lega), whose persecution at the hands of the leftist judiciary and NGOs, then his subsequent acquittal set the tone for his speech. “We won the right to defend our borders from invasion,” he said about the Open Arms case. Now, with USAID’s corruption and foreign interference blown wide open by President Trump, the cultural dominance of leftist NGOs is truly over. “The past is Soros, the future is Elon Musk!” he said, as the crowd erupted once again.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Rally (RN) delivered an even more rousing speech, centered around how Trump’s election accelerated this “unstoppable” global movement which will see globalist governments in Europe fall one after the other, like dominoes. She then said the Patriots are in the best position today to talk to President Trump, something that the president’s team also said before, adding
We may not agree on everything, but we understand best what motivates him: the love of his nation and the protection of its interests.
But the speech that set the stage for the Vox leader Santiago Abascal, the most anticipated speaker, was delivered by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (Fidesz), one of the three co-founders of the Patriots. The PM addressed his speech to Abascal personally, just as much as he did to the audience, telling him the road to success for any political party was cobbled with pain, but Vox is ready for the challenge.
“Europe has been kidnapped by the progressive ideology, just like the mythological Europa was taken by the bull,” Orbán said before catering to the Spanish audience: “I don’t know a braver toreador in politics than Santiago Abascal.” He then talked about the historic friendship between the Hungarian and Spanish nations, who “fought the same Islamic invasion” in the east and west for centuries and helped each other in the Reconquista and against the Ottomans. “This is a tried and tested brotherhood-in-arms,” Orbán said. “Santiago, I’m with you!”
With emotions peaking in the room, the moment was perfect for Abascal, the host of the event and the recently elected president of the Patriots to take the stage. He was barely able to begin his speech due to the crowd loudly chanting his name. When he did, he warned that there should be no illusions: as the Patriots grow, the attacks of the establishment will be nothing like we’ve seen before. But they will still win, he said, because the movement has become unstoppable. Vox’s rise in Spain is a good indication of that: the party is by far the number one choice of voters younger than 35.
“They tried everything against us. From crazy judicial processes to physical violence, through cordons sanitaire and even murder,” Abascal said. “So it’s very easy to recognize our allies. They are the ones who are under the greatest attacks.”
Spain is a good example of what’s happening in Brussels and throughout Europe, Abascal went on. He explained how voters reject both center-left and center-right establishment parties—the socialists and the only nominally right-wing “people’s” parties alike, along with their false dichotomy—for a third option: sovereigntist national conservatism. “Sánchez [PSOE] stands with Hamas and Maduro, Feijóo [PP] stands with von der Leyen. Only we [Vox] stand with Spain and with all European Patriots!”
Then, the Vox leader concluded his speech with a call to arms amid roaring applause from the audience:
Freedom must be restored in Europe and together we will succeed … We only have one duty: never give up. We are going to be the protagonists of a historic victory!
The event went smoothly and without incident—apart from the entrance to the venue being vandalized, and the one topless antifascist protester being dragged kicking and screaming out of the building, much to the amusement of the crowd. “I must have hit a nerve,” Estonia’s Martin Helme, the president of the Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) joked from the stage, but no one paid any more attention to this minor disruption afterward.
Apart from Helme, leaders of other smaller member parties were also present, such as Greece’s Afroditi Latinopoulou (Voice of Reason, FL), Czechia’s Petr Macinka (AUTO), and Poland’s Krzysztof Bosak (Konfederacja), who proudly declared that his party is now the most popular among young voters as well.
The speech of former (and likely incoming) Czech PM Andrej Babiš focused on the Green Deal and the European Union’s disastrous climate policies which have returned to the spotlight in Brussels recently after it was revealed that the EU Commission allegedly used taxpayer funds to pay for illegal lobbying to ensure it would pass. The Patriots called for a conservative alliance in the European Parliament to pause and reevaluate the Green Deal—but were promptly rejected by the EPP, proving again that it’s right-wing and a “people’s” party in name only.
Babiš argued that climate targets must be abandoned to curb Europe’s runaway energy prices and save its industries and agriculture from collapse:
This is no longer about environment and climate. This is a fight for survival. The Green Deal must be abolished for Europe to survive.
André Ventura, the president of the Portuguese Chega (Enough) received a standing ovation for predicting that Spain’s socialist PM Pedró Sánchez and his corrupt government would eventually end up in prison. “Patriots are not afraid of criminals, whether they are liberal, socialist, communist or globalist,” he said.
Herbert Kickl, the leader of the election winner Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) could not attend in person due to the difficult coalition talks back in Vienna, but sent a video message—as did Argentine President Javier Milei—in which he called the Patriots an “alliance of reason” and said his victory is proof that the establishment’s undemocratic cordon sanitaire can be dismantled.
Indeed, the summit felt nothing short of the beginning of a new age, even if the hardest part of the fight is still ahead. The Patriots are already the third largest group in the European Parliament, and they are only going to grow from now on. The establishment’s unlawful firewall may stand for now but not for long: Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, and others are proving every day that such a violation of the people’s democratic will cannot go on forever.
Before long, national conservative governments will reach a critical threshold in the European Council as well, and the true revolution in the EU can begin. This is why these next few years are crucial, as the Eurocrats will do everything to change the institutions so as to deny the Patriots this opportunity. Judging by the Madrid summit, however, Brussels might have already lost.
