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The far-right Alternative for Germany has traded blows over the wisdom of building ties with Donald Trump after the defeat of Viktor Orbán, with some claiming that the US president’s support for the Hungarian leader had backfired.
AfD lawmaker Matthias Moosdorf, a US-sceptic with close ties to Russia, said that the “ostentatious friendship” with Trump and vice-president JD Vance had “hung like millstones around Orbán’s neck” ahead of Sunday’s election.
He said that Hungary, where the opposition claimed a landslide victory and ended 16 years of Orbán’s rule, should serve as a warning for others against the risk of “grabbing falling knives”. Moosdorf’s warning, posted on the social media platform X, was reposted by one of the party’s influential ideologues, Benedikt Kaiser.
Trump threw the weight of his administration behind Orbán, despite his deeply fraught relations with many of the US’s traditional allies in Europe. Last week, vice-president JD Vance flew to Budapest to support him. On Friday, Trump promised to use “the full economic might” of the US to support an Orbán-led Hungary.
But some of Trump’s Maga allies in Europe now view the Hungarian election as a cautionary tale.
Carlo Fidanza, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that Orbán’s ties to Trump “may not have worked in his favour”. He said: “Hungarians are a proud people; they don’t want to be told who to vote for or how to vote.”
Péter Magyar, the winner of the Hungarian election, on Monday said: “Maga is not our deal, it is their deal. This was a great defeat for them, Orbán was their mascot, never mind how good a mascot, but he was the brain behind this anti-Brussels fight.”
Other AfD figures blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who like Trump had endorsed Orbán ahead of the vote. Netanyahu’s backing had turned into a “liability” for the Fidesz leader, said Björn Höcke, the figurehead of the AfD’s most radical wing as well as a strong critic of the US. He said that Israel’s joint attack on Iran with the US had “undoubtedly caused Orbán domestic political damage”.
The criticism directed at Trump and his allies triggered a pushback from those in the AfD who have courted ties with the Maga movement.
Maximilian Krah, a prominent member of parliament who travelled to Budapest for Sunday’s vote, said Orbán had not lost because of his “international contacts”, but rather because of his poor handling of the economy and allegations that gave the impression he was enmeshed in a “web of corruption”.
That was echoed by Beatrix von Storch, another AfD member of parliament who has forged links with the Trump administration; she suggested instead that it was the EU that had meddled in the election, not the US, by exerting pressure on Hungary.
Despite differences over tariffs and the war in Iran, relations with the US were still vital, she told the FT. “The Republicans and the Maga movement remain very important partners for us, and their support is valuable now and will continue to be in the future.”
Others sought to lay the blame elsewhere.
Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right League party, blamed the EU for having put Orbán in “a complicated international situation with Brussels blocking his funds”. Some €35bn in EU funds earmarked for Hungary are suspended due to disputes including rule of law violations, corruption risks and Orbán’s refusal to enact reforms.
Éric Zemmour, leader of France’s extremist right-wing party Reconquête (Reconquest) who attended Trump’s inauguration last year, said the Hungarian result was “neither an ideological defeat nor a political one”, pointing out that Magyar had come from Orbán’s own party and was also tough on migration.
Other European far-right parties lamented the demise of the outgoing Hungarian prime minister but largely steered clear of the lessons to be drawn from it.
French far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella both said that Orbán conceding quickly on Sunday made a mockery of those who had called him a dictator. Le Pen said he had “defended the freedom and sovereignty of Hungary with courage and determination for 16 years.”
Tom Van Grieken, head of the far-right Flemish nationalists Vlaams Belang, said that it was “a dark day for the true Europe”.
Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s right-wing populist Vox party, said that Orbán was leaving behind a Hungary that was much stronger than the one he inherited. “And he leaves a deep mark on all the patriotic forces of Europe,” Abascal said.
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