At the beginning of September, Santiago Abascal, the president of Spain’s far-right Vox party, announced that his country had been chosen to host the next summit of “patriotic leaders and European conservatives” to be held this month. The meeting, likely staged in Madrid, represents the next step in these forces’ bid to mainstream themselves as a “conservative” bloc in European politics, palatable to a broader right-wing audience.

This is not just an alliance of fringe opposition forces, but one that already holds power in several European capitals. Indeed, the last such meeting was held in Warsaw, Poland, on December 4, under the auspices of Jarosław Kaczyński, president of the ruling Law and Justice party. The meeting at the Hotel Regent brought together such hard-right luminaries as Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki (also from Kaczyński’s party), his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen, as well as Abascal and far-right leaders from Flanders and Estonia.

The summit resulted in a brief one-page statement denouncing the status quo in the European Union. It attacked the “disturbing idea” of a Europe “governed by a self-appointed elite.” The document highlighted how this elite carries out “arbitrary application of European law” and a continentwide program of “social engineering” aimed at “separating people from their culture and heritage.”