EU 'crisis' as France's Le Pen could join forces with Putin crony in massive shake up

Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban look set to join forces in the European Parliament, potentially handing Vladimir Putin a huge boost in his war in Ukraine.

The Hungarian prime minister successfully gained official recognition for his Patriots for Europe bloc in the Brussels assembly.

Orban was joined by the Danish People's Party and the Flemish nationalist pro-independence Vlaams Belang to secure the 23 MEPs he needed to register his alliance.

The alliance also includes politicians from Austria's far-right Freedom Party, as well as from Spain's Vox.

Sources close to negotiations between the two leaders told Euronews that she is likely to join Orban's bloc.

If her National Rally party becomes a member, then Patriots for Europe would see its total of MEPs almost quadruple to 86.

The bloc would then become the third largest political force in the parliament, potentially complicating the passage of further military and financial aid to Kyiv.

To date, the EU has approved around £86 billion worth of aid for Ukraine, since Putin invaded just over two years ago. Close to £30 billion of that money has been spent on military weapons such as ammunition, air-defence systems, Leopard tanks and fighter jets.

Orban has long expressed his scepticism about Ukraine's chances of defeating Russia militarily and has repeatedly called for peace negotiations to stop the fighting.

He has recently taken over the rotating EU presidency and embarked last week on a diplomatic tour to Ukraine and Russia. On Friday he met Putin in Moscow for talks, in what the Hungarian prime minister described as a peace mission.

He said that Russia and Ukraine were still "far apart" and that many steps were still needed to end the war. Putin claims that Orban was visiting "not just as a long-time partner" but as a European Union representative.

However, EU officials and leaders were quick to deny this, insisting the Hungarian leader was acting solely on his own initiative.

EU Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Orban was "not representing the EU in any form.”

He added that Brussels' position on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine was reflected in many European Council conclusions, saying: "That position excludes official contacts between the EU and President (Vladimir) Putin.”

The Hungarian prime minister dismissed these comments as "Brusselian bureaucratic nonsense.”

In a post to his X social media account, he said: "(That approach) yielded no results in finding a way to #peace in the Russia-Ukraine war.

“If we want to end the war we need a political approach instead of a bureaucratic one.”