Europe’s hard right is questioning its links to US President Donald Trump following Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s electoral loss.
Trump threw support behind Orbán, but it was not enough to prevent a landslide defeat. One German populist lawmaker said the Hungarian leader’s “ostentatious friendship” with Trump “hung like millstones around Orbán’s neck,” a sentiment echoed by others.
The US administration has not always had the influence it would like on foreign elections: The Liberal Party victory in last year’s Canadian federal election was propelled by White House support for the opposition Conservatives, observers said. That triumph was solidified Sunday by wins in three special elections, giving the Liberals a majority in Parliament for the first time since 2015.