They share the same anti-European rhetoric.
Against the "enslavement" of the EU and the "migratory submersion", Marine Le Pen gave her support, Tuesday, October 26, in Budapest, to the ultra-conservative Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, on the occasion of their first tête-à- head.
It was for the candidate of the National Rally (RN) a highly anticipated meeting, a month after the visit of polemicist Éric Zemmour, his potential rival but not yet declared in the French presidential election of 2022, and his niece Marion Maréchal.
Police escort, red carpet, small committee lunch and "official" press conference: Ms. Le Pen said she was "honored" by the welcome that Viktor Orban gave her at the Carmelite monastery, today the Prime Minister's office , overlooking the Danube.
Eric Zemmour had only had the right to a private interview.
>> Presidential: the difficult start of Marine Le Pen's campaign
Threatened to be dismissed from the first round of the presidential election in April, according to some recent polls, Marine Le Pen has sought to assert her stature by appearing alongside the Hungarian Prime Minister, defender of "illiberal" values in Europe.
Asked about the upcoming election, Viktor Orban however refrained from "taking a position", "the decision resting with the French people".
"In search of partners"
In front of the press, both hammered out their sovereignist message, a few months away from delicate national elections for her, very close for him.
In unison with Viktor Orban, Marine Le Pen strongly criticized the "ideological brutality" of the European Union, refusing any principle of primacy of European law in reference to the recent Polish standoff.
And to castigate a "centralized power in Brussels intoxicated with its own existence, its power and its omnipotence", a "will to enslave" the European Union.
In this context, the two sovereignist figures advocated an alliance of nations.
Viktor Orban, whose party left the EPP (right) group in the European Parliament in March, explained that he was "looking for partners to cooperate in this new era".
And Marine Le Pen's camp is "unmissable", he said, praising her unwavering "support" over the years.
Regarding this alliance of nations, however, the visit did not give rise to any concrete announcement.
"I think that as long as the patriotic and sovereignist forces are not allied within the European Parliament, they obviously have less weight than if we manage to constitute this large group that we have been calling for a certain number of times already" , she then insisted in front of the press.
The subject has hardly advanced since the publication, in July, of a "joint declaration" between the candidate of the RN and about fifteen allies in Europe, including the Hungarian Prime Minister.
"I'm not looking for clones"
In the meantime, Marine Le Pen has taken care to erase the differences, instead highlighting the "question of immigration", dear to the two officials.
It has thus crushed "this scourge from which our nations must imperatively protect themselves" and the "migratory flooding that the EU wants to organize".
Otherwise, Viktor Orban is, like Éric Zemmour and Marion Maréchal, more liberal economically and more conservative in terms of societal values than Marine Le Pen.
An ideological proximity displayed by the trio at the end of September, quick to brandish the "great replacement theory" (conspiracy theory of a replacement of the European population by an immigrant population, Editor's note) on the stage of a "demographic summit" in Budapest.
Likewise, they do not hesitate to stir up the propaganda of the "LGBT + lobby".
But the RN candidate refused to criticize the recent Hungarian law banning "the promotion and representation of homosexuality" among those under 18.
>> LGBT rights in Hungary: what can Europe do to oppose Viktor Orbán
?
"I'm not looking for clones," she said.
"As I am fundamentally attached to the sovereignty of each of the nations, it would not occur to me to come and give lessons to the Hungarian people."
Six months before the presidential election, these differences appear secondary with regard to her "need to boost her own image", and "to tell this electorate tempted by Eric Zemmour that question of authoritarianism, it also has some stripes", comments the historian Nicolas Lebourg, author of an essay on "Extreme rights in Europe".
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR