A large crowd protested at the Hungarian House in Brussels, which hosted the far-right event

A large crowd protested on Wednesday evening in front of the Hungarian House in the government quarter of Brussels, where Jordan Bardella, president of the French far-right National Compact, marked by the name of Marine Le Pen, held a book launch. Our newspaper’s correspondent could not get close to the building – owned by the Hungarian state – because it was surrounded by a lot of people and a police squad car was standing nearby, which after a while started towards the crowd. Several left-wing and anti-fascist groups announced a demonstration at the location of the event, most of them were teenagers and twenty-year-olds who came with banners. Some of them tried to break through the police cordon, to which the police responded with tear gas and water cannons.

29-year-old Jordan Bardella’s autobiography “What We’re Looking For” was published a few days ago in France. The Brussels book launch connected with the dedication took place in the Magyar Ház, which was purchased by the Hungarian state for 10 million euros in 2021 and renovated for at least the same amount. The building was handed over this summer, at the beginning of the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council.

For a long time, government officials explained the purchase of the property in the immediate vicinity of the Belgian prime minister’s residence by saying that it was for the purposes of the successive Hungarian presidency, and that it would later function as a cultural center. Citing insider sources, our newspaper — which first reported on the million-dollar purchase last July — wrote that the building will serve to build international relations between Viktor Orbán and Fidesz, and will be a meeting place for his far-right and populist allies. Wednesday’s guest of the Hungarian House is one of them: Jordan Bardella is not only the president of the National Compact, but also the leader of the European Parliament faction called Patriots for Europe, which also includes Fidesz.

This is not the first time that Viktor Orbán’s radical supporters have been met with hostility in the Belgian capital. In April of this year, a Brussels district mayor banned the NatCon conference organized by the Brussels office of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium on the grounds that they do not welcome racist and extremist politicians in their area and that the protesters pose a threat to public order. The court later invalidated the ban.