European elections and the normalisation of the extreme right: What the Madrid summit means for the EU?

Leaders of the European Parliament’s far-right bloc, Patriots for Europe, held their first official summit in Madrid over the weekend under the slogan “Make Europe Great Again.” The gathering featured Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italian Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, the leader of France’s National Rally Marine Le Pen, and the Netherlands’ PVV leader Geert Wilders. The summit focused primarily on migration and praised re-elected U.S. President Donald Trump, despite his threats to increase tariffs on European imports. 

Studio Europa Maastricht spoke with Dr Luana Russo, Associate Professor in Political Behavior and Quantitative Methods at Maastricht University, about the impact of the far-right alliance on the broader trajectory of European politics and their push to import Trump’s nationalist approach to the EU. 

Read the full interview here.