He’s not very vocally pro-Trump at the moment. To be honest, the whole Trump-situation is his worst nightmare as, firstly, Trump’s idiocy has changed the political debate in the Netherlands from revolving around Wilders’ favourite topic (immigration) to national defence, and secondly, in this new debate he’s at a disadvantage as he’s been openly pro-Trump, and also openly pro-Putin.

But Vincent is correct that Wilders is a one-issue party. On other issues than migration, the PVV pretty much just goes along with the right-wing liberal VVD.

This is what the extreme right means by „free speech”.

Orbán has apparently also been striking a much more hostile tone:

‘Spring cleaning’

On 15 March, a bank holiday when Hungarians commemorate their freedom struggle against the Habsburgs in the 19th century, Orbán thus addressed a crowd in Budapest: ‘The bedbugs have survived the winter. We dismantle the financial apparatus that used corrupt dollars to buy politicians, judges, journalists, fake NGOs and political activists. We let the entire shadow army flee. (…) They have been here too long. They have survived too much.’

He called for a ‘spring cleaning before Easter’.

This rhetoric is also new to Orbán, says Zsuzsanna Végh, who researches Hungary for the Berlin-based think tank GMF. ‘He did not use such dehumanising language before - previously, for instance, he called dissenters “enemies of the nation”.’

Fascist Arrow Cross movement

Observant Hungarian critics noted that Ferenc Szálasi, leader of the fascist Arrow Cross movement, used the same words when talking about Jews in the 1940s.

The radical language and the ban on the Pride, according to Végh ‘extremely undemocratic and a curtailment of the right to association and freedom of expression’, cannot be separated from the parliamentary elections due in spring 2026.

Orbán faces a new challenger, the conservative Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party has surpassed ruling Fidesz in the polls. While Orbán orated about vermin, Magyar got tens of thousands of Hungarians elsewhere in the capital to demonstrate against the government. Hungary’s economy is also in the doldrums.

Végh sees a ‘confluence’ of the ‘attack on media, NGOs and judges’ and the fuelling of the ‘culture war’. Orbán is thus courting the electorate of the far-right, represented in Hungary by the Mi Hazánk (Our Fatherland) party.

When it comes to nostalgia, my favourite game is a 90’s German demo of the DOS version of the original Command & Conquer.

„Jawohl, Sir!”; „Bestätigt!”.

The soldiers were still robots there, too, because of German law forbidding a realistic depiction of war.

The best game I’ve ever played is without a doubt Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve never cried over a game, and with RDR2 I cried nearing the finale myself, then I cried again when I watched it being played in a let’s play series on YouTube. RDR2 is a masterpiece, plain and simple.

I’ve also never loved a fake horse as much as I’ve loved my RDR2 fake horse. Hell, I felt more attached to my horse in RDR2 than I’ve felt to 99% of characters in other games.

Ah, alright.

There’s really no way to know. It seems likely to me he’d have chosen an isolationist stance, but yeah, no way to know.

I’d rather speak German than American, that’s for sure.

Well, it’s not like the US had any kind of alliance with any European state at that point. And Europe pretty much was just ‘Far-away-istan’ (as we say in Dutch) for Americans.

Much of white America has German ancestry. Many just anglicised their names after either World War (eg. Schmidt > Smith; Fischer > Fisher).

I’m not sure what you’re implying, anyway.

Yes, I’m far-right. Whatever.

Considering you’re not giving any actual evidence for much of what you’re writing, that’s speculation as far as I’m concerned as well.

I’m not downplaying anything, I’m saying I’m not buying an oft-repeated narrative, and I’m still not buying it. And, in any case, I don’t expect you to apologise, I expect people I’m responding to in a polite manner to be vaguely polite back. I’ve not doubted your intellectual capabilities just for disagreeing with me.

Polish your Critical Thinking Skills, and hone your Google-Fu. You need to do more research.

You need to talk to people in a less condescending manner. I explicitly asked for more information (‘feel free to make the case’) and laid out an alternative explanation, there’s nothing ‘uncritical’ about that. I haven’t a clue what ‘Google-Fu’ is supposed to mean. I get my information from reputable Dutch and German newspapers.

How can you call this a coincidence?

You’re putting words in my mouth, but I will believe current developments in the US are the result of the Russians if a causative relationship has been established.

Again, I don’t doubt these are the aims of the Russian government, but Russian campaigns are probably fuelling processes that were going on in the US anyway. In the Netherlands, Russians don’t really need to do anything as indigenous racist elements like Wilders have it easy enough as is to harnass these underlying discomforts with ‘the other’, whatever form they may take. Attacks against Turkish immigrants (‘guest workers’) happened in the seventies, there always was an underlying current.

This is all of a completely different order than the claim I’ve been hearing often, that Trump is a literal Putin agent, and I don’t buy it. The agent Krasnov claim came from one guy, as far as I know. Not very convincing, but this what I was actually referring to when I said ‘feel free to make a case’, as I haven’t found this to be very convincing - and I especially haven’t seen convincing evidence.

We saw how he was a supplicant to Putin during his first term, and we know Trump and Musk were both in close contact with Putin during the Biden years. We know that nearly everyone in Trump’s orbit during his first term (Flynn, Manafort, et al) were so involved with the Russians that many went to prison for what essentially amounts to treason. All of that, and much more, and you still think Trump’s connections to Putin/Russia are doubtful?

I didn’t, as I’m Dutch and I dislike following American news. I’ve heard it indeed seems to be the case that Russian narratives work well in the Trump camp. Still, I’m quite sure that if Russia starts following a foreign policy that isn’t compatible with what the Trump camp wants, they’ll drop them as quickly as they did Europe.

I look at Trump barely being able to utter a coherent English sentence, and I doubt he could control even himself.

To be honest, the entire idea that you could use a loose cannon like Trump as an agent is pretty stupid by itself. The man doesn’t have a clue in the morning what he’ll be saying in the evening. The ‘evidence’ is one guy, as far as I’ve gathered, but feel free to make the case.

Outside of ‘the evil Russians rule the world’, there are plenty of reasons for the way Trump is acting. I think what we’re seeing is more a return (or an attempted return, anyway) of 19th/early 20th century thinking in spheres of influence, where Trump thinks it’s alright that Russia ‘gets’ Ukraine as part of its sphere of influence, if America gets Canada and Greenland. Whether it’ll actually work this way is another question, of course (I have doubts that it will). We don’t know how Trumps presidency will develop in the end, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump actually will end up getting mad at Putin if he doesn’t play by his rules.

Note that I’m not denying Russia attempts to disrupt western political processes, just that they are so murderously successful to even have an American president as their puppet. That the US has elected such an idiot president, is entirely their own fault (as is Wilders in the Netherlands).

That’s pretty much my view. The extreme right in Europe and the US also forms a collaborative network itself, though, with events like CPAC. I’d be more afraid of the US than of Russia, honestly.

If you think everything that’s happening in Europe and the US is perpetrated by the Russians, that’s honestly more of an easy way of pretending an ‘other’ outside of the country is responsible, not anyone in the country itself.

Wilders, despite also supporting Russia, is a 100% Dutch phenomenon (starting with Fortuyn at least). These types will use any power they have to attain as much power as they can get; in the Netherlands (with the Dutch electoral system), that’s a bit more difficult than in Hungary. To attain more power, it’s a good idea to have some scapegoat you can make people scared of and rail against constantly: muslims, asylum seekers, recently trans folks. You don’t need ‘Russia’ to explain these authoritarian attacks on minorities.

It’s a form of scapegoating itself, actually, despite there still actually being truth to Russian disinformation and destabilisation campaigns, of course. At the same time, it overinflates Russian abilities, though Romania is worrying.

I disagree with the ‘Russian conspiracy’ nonsense anyway, especially when it comes to Trump. I suppose that makes me ‘a complete idiot’.