BRUSSELS — European Union leaders are holding a summit in Brussels on Thursday without Hungarian politician Viktor Orbán for the first time in 16 years.
Prime ministers, chancellors and presidents have come and gone, but Orbán has been a stable fixture in Brussels’ halls of power, piloting Europe’s drift to the right. He has pioneered a brand of nationalist populism that has found growing success on the continent and is idolized by the Make America Great Again movement in the U.S.