Netanyahu finds shrinking support among Europe's far-right

Far-right European politicians courted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have offered him lukewarm support following the election, with some praising his stronger-than-expected result and others remaining silent.

Despite political uncertainties in Israel, the messaging is clear: Mr Netanyahu remains the preferred candidate of far-right politicians in Europe. But with increasing caution from some.

“CONGRATULATIONS BIBI,” far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders wrote in capital letters on X. Claiming Mr Netanyahu had scored a “victory”, Hungary's former prime minister Viktor Orban said he had “once again defied every prediction, beaten every model, and proven … critics wrong”.

Yet a significant number of Mr Netanyahu's allies in the rest of Europe, including France's likely next president, the far-right Marine Le Pen, have remained silent.

Ms Le Pen has in the past received statements of support from Mr Netanyahu, after years of building bridges with Israel in a bid to shed her party's reputation for anti-Semitism.

Show caption: Former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban was among the f…

The Israeli right has been willing to overlook some parties' roots in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, such as Ms Le Pen's, to befriend them – bonding over anti-Islam tendencies and a dislike of liberal leaders in Europe.

“Anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric is the narrow bridge on which both sides meet,” said Marek Matusiak, who has researched the relationship at the Centre for Eastern Studies in Poland.

Mr Netanyahu has often stood up for right-wing allies in Europe. He previously sent warm support to Mr Orban, and there was even suspicion of Israeli spies meddling in an election in Slovenia.

For European parties, returning the favour during Israel’s election season could land them in tricky waters. The right-wing parties are populists who “will say whatever is popular”, which Israel is not, said Eldar Mamedov, a former European diplomat and a member of the Pugwash peace group.

In France, there are several likely reasons for Ms Le Pen's silence, including a presidential race that she hopes to win in April. There is also the “radioactivity” of Mr Netanyahu's extremist allies, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, said an expert on the French far-right and anti-Semitism, Jean-Yves Camus.

In early October, Ms Le Pen's National Rally skipped a national conservative meeting in Jerusalem attended by US and European conservative figures.

“With the presidential election coming up in France, maybe the National Rally decided it was best to not get too involved in the Israeli elections,” Mr Camus told The National. “They likely didn't want pictures on social media showing them with [Israeli] figures that are becoming seriously controversial.”

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) – which has not established the same ties with Israel – has also shown little interest in Israel's election.

Show caption: National Conservatism conferences in Brussels and Jerusalem …

Alliance building

The far-right alliance began to make waves in 2025 when Mr Netanyahu's Likud party was welcomed to the Patriots group in the European Parliament as an observer. Austria’s Freedom Party, founded in 1956 by an SS brigade leader, was jubilant at the “paradigm shift” showing the party was no longer a pariah.

The Freedom Party's Harald Vilimsky, one of the main cheerleaders of the relationship who attended the Jerusalem conference, congratulated Likud on Wednesday and called the result a “clear rejection of the challengers”, although no camp has a clear majority.

Good relations with Israel help right-wing parties “to fend off accusations of anti-Semitism, of extremism, of nationalism, of not having confronted their, in some cases, tainted past,” Mr Matusiak said.

He said the presence of European nationalists at two major anti-Semitism conferences in Jerusalem – amid boycotts from some Jewish groups – showed the alliance “picking up speed”.

Some right-wing politicians also see Israel as an ethnostate that they would like to emulate in Europe, said Mr Mamedov.

For Israel, allies in Brussels helped to foil pro-Palestinian initiatives. Hungary under Mr Orban vetoed EU sanctions. Mr Netanyahu returned the favour by praising Mr Orban’s “courage and wisdom” during Hungary’s election campaign.

Mr Orban lost that election but Israel soon gained a new ally in Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa. Defeated leader Robert Golob had accused “foreign services” of meddling in the vote after claims of a secret Israeli visit.

Mr Netanyahu’s latest contribution was to praise Ms Le Pen, saying relations with France would improve if her National Rally party won the presidency. Ms Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the party from 1972 to 2011, was convicted several times of Holocaust denial.

Show caption: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's support for the Isra…

The accusation has hounded the new generation of far-right leaders. Recently, more than a decade-old anti-Semitic messages sent by 31-year-old Jordan Bardella, who is expected to become Ms Le Pen's prime minister if she is elected next year, were unearthed by a Mediapart investigation.

Mr Bardella's defence has consisted of citing his good relations with Israel and denying the authenticity of the messages, even though Mediapart said it had his Facebook message history verified with Meta, and did not rely on screenshots.

The messages do not appear to have dented the party's reputation among supporters, who threw a Mediapart reporter out of a party meeting last week in Orleans. Also kicked out were activists from the left-wing Union of Jewish Students of France, after they pulled out banners denouncing the party's history of anti-Semitism and racism.

Cracks appear

Ms Le Pen has not always sung from Mr Netanyahu’s hymn sheet. While she has often condemned Hamas, she said in June that disarming the group was a step towards the “creation of a sovereign state” for Palestine – in effect endorsing France and the EU's support for a two-state solution. Mr Netanyahu wants no such thing.

She is not the only one less than enthused by Israel’s foreign policy. On Britain’s right-wing fringe, the Israeli right has lost potential friends by siding with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.

When Mr Netanyahu’s son Yair declared that the islands belonged to Argentina, he angered Rupert Lowe, the leader of hard-right Restore Britain, who said: “You have enough problems to be focusing on in Israel, Netanyahu.”

And when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested Israel was doing the West’s “dirty work” by bombing Iran, the far-right AfD took the opposite view, chiding Mr Merz and warning against escalation in the Middle East.

Backing the German far right remains too sensitive even for Israel – for now. Israel’s minister for fighting anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli, last year said the party was hampered by “troubling” views on the Nazi era. But he did not close the door entirely, describing AfD's leader Alice Weidel as more reasonable.

Mr Matusiak said Israel appeared unconcerned by a recent AfD triumph in a German state election. “I expect that if the AfD continues to be successful, there will come a point when they will establish official relations, provided the AfD does not say something utterly outrageous,” he said.

“If they do, on the Holocaust, on history, then it will be difficult. But other than that, I think it is bound to happen sooner or later.”