MORMANT-SUR-VERNISSON, France — After a rough start to 2025, the adulation of a beer-chugging crowd and the support of the European far right’s top brass might be just what the doctor ordered for Marine Le Pen.
An all-star lineup of European nationalists including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Matteo Salvini, Czechia’s Andrej Babiš and Spain’s Santiago Abascal joined Le Pen in the small village of Mormant-sur-Vernisson, population 133, to celebrate one year since the parties that make up the Patriots for Europe group scored a major win in the European election.
Organizers said more than 6,000 people were in attendance, mostly supporters of Le Pen’s National Rally from the local area, with some traveling from further afield.
Those who spoke took turns at the podium relaying their traditional talking points on everything from gender identity to clamping down on mass migration as the crowd chowed down on Peruvian fusion empanadas and the Maghrebi sausage variety, Merguez.
Everyone brought the love for Le Pen, who is facing a possible ban on running for president in 2027 after being found guilty of embezzlement in March. The verdict was handed down just months after the death of her father and political mentor, Jean-Marie.
“Each passing day brings you closer to Marine Le Pen being president,” Abascal, an MEP for Spain’s Vox party, told the crowd in French. “They won’t be able to stop her.”
The strongest words of support for Le Pen came from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who made the 1,200-kilometer trip to France to back his ally. Orbán lauded his “long-time friend,” as a “courageous fighter” who “doesn’t betray” and “doesn’t let you down.”
“France must be a very rich country if it can afford not to have Marine Le Pen as president,” he said.
In turn, Le Pen praised Orbán’s Hungary as “a model of historical resistance to oppression,” and “a leading nation in Europe,” endorsing its refusal to implement EU asylum laws.
The final speech of the day belonged to Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé, Jordan Bardella, who chairs the Patriots group in European Parliament — and increasingly looks like a threat to Le Pen’s grip on her party.
“We want to govern in France and we are preparing for it everyday,” Bardella said. The National Rally’s official plan — for now — is to have Bardella serve as prime minister if Le Pen wins the presidency.
Le Pen will leave the sun-scorched cereal fields of Mormant-sur-Vernisson with a new title unanimously bestowed upon her by her peers: honorary president of the Patriots.
The gesture is largely symbolic. On the one hand, it reaffirms her primacy over France’s far right in the eyes of her international counterparts.
But such laurels often come closer to the eulogy of a career than they do the apex of one.
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