Right-wing parties on the European continent are facing suppression from establishment institutions, including legal prosecution and exclusion from parliamentary proceedings.
President Donald Trump and his administration see opportunity in these movements and seek to build a global network of like-minded conservative lawmakers committed to free speech and populist politics.
The most recent example is among the most extreme — the conviction of French politician Marine Le Pen, figurehead of the National Rally Party, after she used finances meant to pay European Parliament aides for work on her political campaign.
Le Pen received harsh penalties after being found guilty, including four years of prison time (commuted to two years suspended and two years with an ankle monitor), a penalty of over $100,000, and a five-year ban on holding political office.
The severity of the punishment raised eyebrows across the French parliament. Le Pen remains the front-runner to replace President Emmanuel Macron, and the heavy-handed judgment could turn her into a martyr in voters’ minds.
Trump, who received felony convictions ahead of his successful comeback in 2024, has acknowledged similarities between Le Pen’s prosecution and his own trajectory back into the White House.
“The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent, this time going so far as to put that Opponent in prison,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “It is the same ‘playbook’ that was used against me by a group of Lunatics and Losers, like Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, and Lisa Monaco. They spent the last nine years thinking of nothing else, and they FAILED, because the People of the United States realized that they were only Corrupt Lawyers and Politicians.”
“It is all so bad for France, and the Great French People, no matter what side they are on,” Trump continued. “FREE MARINE LE PEN!”
Beyond France, there is a larger movement within European politics to emulate and build upon the populist appeal that Trump brought to the mainstream in 2016, which was cemented by his overwhelming victory in November.
The Trump administration is also extending its endorsement to these parties’ fight for fair treatment.
Alternative for Germany, a political party that could have a legitimate claim to being the most Trump-aligned organization in Europe, has leaned heavily into the support it receives from the White House.
AfD doubled its support in February when it rose to over 20% in the Bundestag election, becoming the second-largest party in the nation. However, without clearing the 25% mark, it remains isolated and powerless against a parliament publicly coordinating a “firewall” to keep it irrelevant.
Establishment parties such as the Christian Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party, and Green Party have openly worked together to prevent AfD from influencing policy, each vowing not to work with the organization deemed too “far-right” for polite politics.
The establishment even works to keep AfD from ceremonial roles. The Bundestag voted to grant its honorary Father of the House designation to the longest-serving parliamentarian instead of the oldest parliamentarian to prevent an AfD member from assuming the title.
Vice President JD Vance took aim at these suppressive attitudes in his landmark address to European leaders in Munich on Feb. 14. The speech shocked German politicians and overjoyed AfD voters.
“Too many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election,” Vance said.
But the efforts to delegitimize the AfD have not subsided — they’ve only intensified.
Members of the four establishment parties have even floated the idea of legally designating AfD as an “extremist” organization, which would then open up a route to ban the party via the judiciary.
Still, Make America Great Again-parallel movements continue to grow across the continent as the White House attempts to foster goodwill with right-wing movements whether they are prosecuted, unpopular, or running the nation.
Trump’s friendships with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are well-documented. He regularly shouts out British member of Parliament Nigel Farage and his right-wing populist Reform UK Party, while Vance accuses U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labor Party of “infring[ing] on free speech.”
In Spain, the right-wing populist Vox Party is gaining momentum as the No. 3 party in public polls and is not shy in its affection for Trump.
Party leader Santiago Abascal was present at the November inauguration and champions the message of “making Spain great again.”
Whether this affection will last is debatable, as Trump’s latest round of tariffs threatens to punish perceived exploitation in global markets. The sweeping penalties are being rolled out against allies and enemies alike, souring some attitudes abroad, even among previously Trump-adjacent figures.
Vox’s Abascal was forced to disavow Trump’s proposed tariffs on Spanish products after the announcement this week.
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Ever the loyalist, however, Abascal clarified that he respects Trump looking out for “his interests” despite the fact they “go against ours.”
Canada’s conservatives were fully on board to “Make Canada Great Again” in the months leading up to Trump’s victory, but his heel-turn into economic feuds against America’s northern neighbor has forced the party to stand against the U.S. in a similar position to the Liberals.