Brussels – Next Monday (Jan. 20), Donald Trump will be formally sworn in as 47th president of the United States, picking up the baton from Joe Biden. At the inauguration ceremony, which historically takes place on Capitol Hill, in defiance of tradition several international leaders and dignitaries have been invited, including from the European Union.
Between official confirmations and denials, the final list of who will participate is not yet complete, but it is clear that (with few exceptions) the only political area to be widely represented will be that ranging from the right to the far right. This leaves little doubt about the trajectory the second presidency will take for the undisputed master of the Republican Party.
Meloni and the Conservatives
Of the heads of state and government currently sitting on the European Council, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni seems to be the only one to receive an official invitation from the New York tycoon. This is not surprising, given the efforts that the former president of the European Conservative (ECR) party has made in recent months in crediting herself in Washington as one of the points of reference for the new administration on the Old Continent.
From personal contacts with Trump (who has called her “a fantastic woman”) to those with the owner of X, SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk (who will play a key role in the next U.S. cabinet), and from the Abedini-Sala affair to the “Starlink affair,” the leader of Fratelli d’Italia is considered politically close to the next White House tenant. In any case, the participation of the Prime Minister has not yet been officially confirmed.
Along with Meloni, the other prominent members of the conservative family who will travel to Washington are Mateusz Morawiecki, former Polish premier and freshly appointed ECR president, his two deputies Carlo Fidanza (FdI delegation head in Strasbourg), Marion Maréchal (granddaughter of Marine Le Pen and MEP initially elected with Reconquête but now switched to Identités et libertés), and George Simion (leader of the Romanian AUR party).
According to the spokesperson of the ECR group in the chamber, the conservative overseas delegation will also include MEPs Assita Kanko (deputy group leader from the Belgian N-va), Stephen Bartulica (member of the Croatian Domino party), Rihard Kols (elected in Latvia with the NA), and Dominik Tarczyński (from the Polish PiS).
Patriots and Sovereignists
Of the EU leaders, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has always been an outspoken admirer of Trump and co-founder of the European Patriots Party (Patriots), will not attend. After there had been conflicting news on the subject for a few days, the spokesman for the Magyar premier, Zoltán Kovács, wanted to “close the circus” by remarking the day before yesterday (Jan. 15) that “no Hungarian government official—or any foreign leader—has received an ‘official’ invitation.”
Shutting down the circus: no Hungarian government official—or any foreign leader—received an “official” invitation.
The U.S. presidential inauguration is traditionally an event celebrating the peaceful transfer of power, not a gathering for foreign dignitaries. Anyone…
– Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) January 15, 2025
According to what La Presse reports, a delegation for the Patriots will travel to Washington consisting of President Santiago Abascal (leader of the Spanish Vox party) and a handful of MEPs (the group in the EU Parliament is called Patriots for Europe, abbreviated to PfE): Kinga Gál (Hungarian from Fidesz), Klara Dostalova (elected in the Czech Republic with Ano 2011) and Hermann Tertsch (Vox), as well as Paolo Borchia (head of the Lega delegation), Jorge Martín Frías (Vox) and Filip Turek (leader of the Czech PaM party). According to Politico, the leader of the Belgian Vlaams Belang party Tom Van Grieken is also expected to participate.
Continuing with European right-wingers, other notable invitees include the head of Reform Uk and noble father of Brexit, Nigel Farage, the leader of Reconquête (a transalpine party even further to the right than the Rassemblement national) Éric Zemmour and the co-chair of Germany’s ultra-right AfD, Tino Chrupalla. For the same political family as the latter two, MEP Sarah Knafo, deputy group leader of the Europe of Sovereign Nations (Esn) in Strasbourg in the Reconquête quota, should also attend the inauguration.
As for Chrupalla, the invitation was reportedly originally addressed to her counterpart Alice Weidel, recently incensed by Musk himself in a live flop on X, who, however, declined, citing commitments related to campaigning at home (she was nominated this week as a candidate for chancellor, the first in history of the post-Nazi party), for the vote on Feb. 23.
The international guests
Contrary to Kovács’ claims, however, many foreign heads of state and government were invited in defiance of the tradition that would have international guests of no higher rank than diplomats and ambassadors.
Argentinean President Javier Milei has long since confirmed his attendance, while former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro could not as, finding himself under investigation for his alleged role in the attempted coup of January 2023 (an episode that closely resembled the assault on the Capitol by pro-Trump ultras two years earlier), his passport was suspended by judicial authorities.
Another invitation came to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who, however, will send in his stead in Washington his deputy Han Zheng: not exactly radical right-wing leadership, it will be nimbly noted, but one need only consider the strategic relevance of Washington-Beijing relations to understand the reasons for Trump’s choice.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
