Europe's US-backed conservatives hope this is their moment to go mainstream

Donald Trump's return to the White House helps Europe's nationalists and populists find their voice.

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The timing is crucial, ahead of Poland's presidential election run-off on Sunday, between a CPAC-backed nationalist, Karol Nawrocki, and the liberal Mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski, which CPAC speakers describe as a "battle for Western civilisation".

Traditionally a meeting place for conservative activists in America, CPAC's visibility has soared with Donald Trump back in the White House and his Maga (Make America Great Again) movement in undisputed control of the Republican party.

"This is not a gathering of the defeated, but of those who have endured," Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the opening session on Thursday in Budapest.

Describing President Trump as a "truth serum", Orban emphasised his vision of a new Europe, in what he calls "the Age of Patriots", based on the nation, the traditional family, and his version of Christianity.