Presidential 2022: Marine Le Pen in Hungary to meet Viktor Orban

Far-right leader Marine le Pen at a press conference in Brussels, October 22, 2021. AP - Francois Walschaerts

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Marine Le Pen is in Budapest.

The National Assembly's presidential candidate has an appointment this Tuesday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. 

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Six months before the presidential election, Marine Le Pen wants to gain credibility on the international scene.

She wants to take the opportunity to stand out from the one who threatens her in the polls,

.

The polemicist was also in Hungary, barely a month ago.

Eric Zemmour had been received in private, Marine Le Pen, she is entitled to a formal interview in Viktor Orban's office, then to a joint press conference like any Head of State on an official visit, says our envoy. special in Budapest, 

.

Marine Le Pen relishes these honors, she who repeats that she does not play in the same court as Eric Zemmour even if the RN candidate will have waited a long time for this first face to face with Viktor Orban. 

A signal to some of his voters

By appearing alongside the leader with clear-cut positions on immigration and LGBT + people, Marine Le Pen is also sending a signal to some of his voters tempted by Eric Zemmour's more radical discourse. 

A strategy that does not convince everyone in the entourage of the candidate, weakened.

" 

", slips, bitter, a part of the campaign.

As for Viktor Orban, also in the

, this is the first time that he officially receives the head of the French far right.

For a long time he refused to meet Marine le Pen, recalls our correspondent in Budapest,

.

The Prime Minister preferred to dialogue with politicians who are in power.

In addition, showing off with a far-right leader would have been frowned upon within the EPP, the family of European conservatives, which housed the party of the Hungarian Prime Minister.

Designs close to Europe

But today everything has changed.

While on the verge of being excluded from the Euroconservatives, due to his attacks on the rule of law, Viktor Orban preferred to slam the door.

Last March, he left his European political family.

Today he finds himself isolated, and seeks to build a new alliance within the European Parliament.

An alliance of radical rights to reform Europe.

But the Hungarian leader needs partners.

Marine Le Pen seems a respectable ally.

She relaxed her stance and abandoned the idea of ​​Frexit.

Stay in Europe to reform it from the inside, and make it a Europe of nations, that is Marine Le Pen's vision.

A vision shared by Viktor Orban.

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• France

• Hungary

• Presidential France 2022

• Marine Le Pen