HUNGARIAN Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced the formation of a new right-wing European bloc in Vienna today.

Mr Orban, whose government takes over the EU’s rotating presidency for the next six months on Monday, travelled to the Austrian capital to present the new Patriots of Europe alliance, formed of his party Fidesz, Austria’s Freedom Party and the Czech ANO (“Action of Dissatisfied Citizens”) led by former PM Andrej Babis.

He said his bloc would stand for “peace, order and development” against a Brussels elite committed to “war, migration and stagnation.”

Mr Orban has sought to build pan-European blocs before, in 2021 launching a project for what he termed a “new renaissance” with Italian and Polish nationalists Matteo Salvini and Mateusz Morawiecki.

His reference to Brussels’ support for war appears to be a bid to resist the trend of far-right parties such as Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy to drop their criticism of Nato on entering power. Mr Orban has opposed EU assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.