Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian MEP and prominent Brexit critic, has launched a blistering attack on Hungarian PM Viktor Orban and other right-wing leaders, accusing them of wanting to “paralyse Europe”.
Mr Verhofstadt became a familiar face after the 2016 referendum and famously posed with a t-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “b******* to Brexit” during the 2019 Liberal Democrat conference.
Today he trained his sights on Mr Orban, along with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen, after an event organised by Spain’s far-right Vox party in Madrid prior to next month’s European Parliamentary elections.
The former Prime Minister of Belgium is particularly concerned at the prospect of European member states asserting their independence from Brussels – in much the same way Britain did.
Posting on X, he said: “The far-right, who dropped Brexit after seeing it, now want a robust Europe, but based on national sovereignty.
“Their offer? 27 EU countries vetoing each other. A menu for inaction & chaos.
“A vote for the far-right is a vote for a paralysed Europe!”
Speaking yesterday, Ms Le Pen said: “We are in the final stretch to make 9 June a day of liberation and hope.
“We have three weeks left to convince our respective compatriots to go out and vote.”
Ms Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has its foundations in Benito Mussolini’s fascism, spoke in Spanish via video conference and called for young people to vote.
She declared: “You are the only possible future for Europe.”
The defence of the EU’s borders was another main theme of the last of two days of a meeting organised by Vox in an arena in the outskirts of the Spanish capital.
Ms Meloni defended her country’s policy of reaching agreements with third countries to try to curb illegal immigration, while Ms Le Pen advocated for reform of the Schengen area – which allows free movement of people within most of the bloc’s borders – so that “Europe allows each country to choose who enters and who leaves its territory.”
Vox’s president, Santiago Abascal, called for unity of the far-right ahead of the European election.
He said: “In the face of globalism we must respond with a global alliance of patriots in defence of common sense, economic prosperity, security and freedom because we share the threat, and that leads us to solidarity,”
Over the course of the event, supporters who packed the Palacio de Vistalegre arena cheered messages against the European Green Deal and in favour of farm workers, whose protests brought several cities in the continent to a standstill in recent months.
They also applauded every speaker’s message in solidarity with Israel in its devastating war against Hamas in Gaza following the militant group’s October 7 attack.
Israel was represented at the meeting by its Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and the former Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, also spoke from a video screen.