Opinion: What do the far-right politicians Marine Le Pen of France, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia have in common? All are long-standing admirers of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the feeling is mutual, writes Peter Hartcher
What do the prominent far-right politicians Marine Le Pen of France, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia have in common? All three have fought elections this month, and all three have done better than they did in their previous election contests.
One other striking factor that the trio have in common: all are long-standing admirers of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the feeling is mutual. But it seems we aren’t. “Maybe we were premature to celebrate the return of the West,” says the Lowy Institute’s director of research, Herve Lemahieu. “The risk is that we are living through a very transient phase of Western unity. Maybe the front line is not in the Donbas region of Ukraine but in Europe itself.”
While Macron posed as a wartime leader, trying to mediate with Putin and even dressing up in a khaki hoodie a la Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, Le Pen skirted the war by campaigning on cost-of-living pressures and kitchen table issues. Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic plays a balancing game between Russia and the EU. He boasted last year that his close relationship with Putin won his country an “incredible” deal on energy supply from Russia. Serbia relies on Moscow for almost all its gas needs. Also, Russia wields its UN Security Council veto in support of a Serbian priority – its refusal to recognise the independence of Kosovo.
“Le Pen as president of France would be far more traumatic for the European project than Brexit was. Britain was more of a peripheral player while France has always been an integral founding member. Without France, there is no functional EU. And the US can only get away with having a large footprint in Europe through having a functional EU.”
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