The visit of the Hungarian national populist Viktor Orbán to Moscow and his continuous flirtations with the Russian Vladimir Putin. The advance of several Eurosceptic and pro-Russian populist parties in the European elections and their victory in elections in countries like Austria. The rise in Romania of the pro-Russian conspiracy-minded far-right Calin Georgescu, the candidate with the most votes in the first round of the presidential elections, although the Constitutional Court ended up annulling them. And the last: the appointment of the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, with the Russian autocrat this Sunday in Moscow. The growing movements towards Putin are worrying in the European Union.
The latest example of this phenomenon – Fico’s visit to Russia, after a dispute with kyiv over the upcoming interruption of Russian gas transit to Slovakia through Ukraine – has generated some discomfort in the community club. Because, furthermore, these gestures from European countries occur at a time when the EU is concerned about the imminent arrival to the White House of Donald Trump, who for years has shown himself to be much more sympathetic to Putin than to the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky. The promise made by the US president-elect to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, which may lead to early peace negotiations, raises fears in the EU that the decision will incite the countries closest to the Kremlin and crack the European unity.
“Let’s not fool ourselves; When the diplomatic dialogue arrives, internal voices may emerge that advocate a reestablishment of relations with Russia,” says a community source, who requests anonymity to comment on this thorny issue.
Until now, except for the Hungarian exception, the European Union has unanimously maintained isolation against Putin. The community club has approved 15 packages of sanctions against the Kremlin and has also included in its blacklist, in an unprecedented way, several architects and executors of hybrid warfare, a tool that Russia has amplified against the EU in recent times.
However, as the war launched against Ukraine continues for months, the voices that question support for kyiv or that call for a quick exit from the conflict increase – or become more visible – even if it harms Ukraine, a candidate country. community club. Fico, for example, has claimed that Putin has been “wrongly demonized” by the West.
The Russian leader has two visible allies in the European Council, the institution that brings together EU leaders: Orbán, the loose verse of the EU, who usually puts a damper on measures against the Kremlin, and Fico. Both leaders, also, from respective NATO member countries. In addition, Putin also enjoys sympathy in several far-right and populist parties in the Old Continent. Some, in full swing.
That group includes the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which calls for an end to European aid to Ukraine and claims that the United States and NATO are also to blame for the large-scale invasion, which will soon be three years old. Its MEPs in the European Parliament – 14 legislators – have voted against several resolutions aiding kyiv and condemning Russia. Their position on Russia, at least for the moment, does not seem to penalize them: if the legislative elections, scheduled for February 23, were held today, the AfD would be the second most voted party in the entire country, after the conservatives, according to the polls.
Also in Germany, the self-proclaimed “conservative left” of the populist Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), which has cried out against the end of aid to Ukraine, is reaping very good numbers in the east of the country. In June, when Zelensky came to give a speech in the German Parliament, the majority of AfD and BSW deputies left the building. “Social dissatisfaction and the feeling of not being represented by existing parties, amplified by the emotional appeal of the idea of peace as a symbol of stability, are becoming risks for collective Western support for Ukraine,” argues Gwendolyn Sasse. in an analysis for the Carnegie Institute on the instrumentalization of the Russian war in European politics.
Putin, considered for decades as the great destabilizer, has played his cards for years to forge ideological ties with far-right parties around the planet. Especially with their conservative positions against the rights of LGTBIQ+ people; in favor of the idea of a traditional family; and also with tough policies on migration. New parties in Bulgaria, the poorest country in the EU, draw from this story, for example, such as Mech (Morality, Unity, Honor), an ultra-conservative and Eurosceptic formation that claims neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine, and also Velichie ( Grandeza), which has assured that it will paralyze Bulgarian aid to kyiv.
Beyond these affinities, the Kremlin also lives off the income of the former Soviet Union and its links with left-wing parties that maintain an anti-American and anti-NATO stance around the world. Some of the members of that left have also voted against the resolutions condemning Russia and aiding Ukraine in the European Parliament, such as the Greeks of the Communist Party Lefteris Nikolau-Alavanos or Costas Papadakis, according to an extensive review of the parliamentary resolutions.
Links with the extreme right
In the most right-wing European Parliament in decades, the majority of parties related to Russia are concentrated in the ranks of the extreme right, as evidenced by their votes regarding the texts voted on Russia. As occurs in the group of the so-called Sovereignists, the AfD political family, and in the self-proclaimed European Patriots, where there are Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Orbán, the League of Italian Matteo Salvini and the Spanish party Vox.
Like Salvini, who not too long before the large-scale invasion visited Moscow and wore t-shirts with Putin’s portrait, the Spanish extremist party has not touched on the Russian issue since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Nor does the ultra-Dutch Geert Wilders – his party is the majority in the Dutch government coalition – who, until it became a toxic issue, praised the Kremlin and saw it as an ally in the fight against terrorism and “massive” immigration from outside Europe.
The French far-right Marine Le Pen, whose party, National Rally, garnered great support in the European elections in June and in the legislative elections in July, has also tried to hide her affinity with the Russian autocrat under the rug. Furthermore, in 2004 he obtained a million-dollar loan from a Russian bank at a very convenient interest rate.
The victory in September of the extremist Freedom Party (FPÖ) in Austria – although it has not yet managed to form a government and may not succeed because it does not win alone – was also a beneficial element for the Kremlin. Its leader, Herbert Kickl, who is following in Orbán’s footsteps, has promised to end Austrian aid to Ukraine and veto sanctions against Moscow. Militaryly neutral Austria has taken in thousands of Ukrainian refugees, but maintains some affinity with the Kremlin and still relies on cheap Russian gas. “Russia is now closely watching the elections in 2025 in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic and will do everything possible to try to influence them,” warns a diplomatic source.
