NY Young Republican Gala Sponsored By Ultra-Right Hungarian Group; Special Award For AFD Member (And Russian Asset)

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New York Young Republican Club Policy Chairman Dovid Holtzman gives an award to Markus Frohnmaier of Germany's far-right party AfD in this video still from the club's 2026 annual gala. (Credit: NYYRC)

At a lavish New York City party last Saturday, dozens of European politicians brushed shoulders with powerful Republican Party elites and allies. DeSmog has identified more than 20 elected lawmakers from Germany and Italy who attended the event — the annual New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) gala — through their social media posts that evening. They include members of the European Parliament as well as national and local elected officials.

The event was co-organised with the Center for Fundamental Rights, an ultra-conservative Hungarian think tank indirectly funded by the Hungarian government. Though that connection wasn’t publicized widely, the think tank was named in a printed event programme obtained by DeSmog, and its logo is visible in photos posted on social media from the event. “We are in the trenches together,” István Kovács, the center’s strategic director, said during a speech he gave at the gala. Kovács noted that “my organization, the Center for Fundamental Rights, has a history with the [New York Young Republican Club]” and said that the two groups will be hosting events together in Hungary next year, including another CPAC Hungary.

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Members of the NYYRC range in age from 18 to 40 years old. In October, Politico published details of racist and antisemitic messages between leaders of Young Republican groups, in which they referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people”, and joked about putting political opponents in gas chambers. “The media went full schizo to insinuate that we were Nazis because of our connection to our friends at the most popular party in Germany, the AfD,” Stefano Forte, the president of the NYYRC, said while speaking at the gala. “Well, here’s a denunciation. We unequivocally denounce the fake news media”.

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Frohnmaier has had close ties to Russia, according to a 2023 report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. He has previously been identified as a major asset by the Kremlin, with a leaked Russian strategy document stating, “we will have our own absolutely controlled MP” ahead of his election in 2019. Other Europeans at the Young Republican Club gala included the likes of Luca Toccalini, who is a member of the Italian Parliament for radical right party Lega and leads its youth branch, and Petr Bystron, a member of the European Parliament for AfD, who is currently being investigated over allegations of corruption linked to Russian bribes. “The invitation to the Gala confirms increasingly solid relations between Lega and the Republican Party,” Toccalini told Italian press. An NYYRC speaker also thanked Hungarian far-right party Fidesz, France’s National Rally, and Austria’s Freedom Party for attending. In response to a request for comment, Fidesz said that “there was no participation by Fidesz in this event.”

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https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/18/group-linked-to-hungarys-orban-co-organises-young-republican-gala/