Tag: european far right
Nexit, Frexit Or Italeave? British Vote Fires Up EU’s ‘Outers’

Nexit, Frexit Or Italeave? British Vote Fires Up EU’s ‘Outers’

Britain’s vote to leave the European Union fired up populist eurosceptic parties across the continent on Friday, giving fresh voice to their calls to leave the bloc or its euro currency.

Right-wing and anti-immigrant parties in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and France demanded referendums on membership of the union, while Italy’s 5-Star movement said it would pursue its own proposal for a vote on the euro.

Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch anti-immigrant PVV party, said he would make a Dutch referendum on EU membership a central theme of his campaign to become prime minister in next year’s parliamentary election.

“I congratulate the British people for beating the political elite in both London and Brussels and I think we can do the same,” Wilders told Reuters. “We should have a referendum about a ‘Nexit’ as soon as possible.”

On Thursday, Britons voted to leave the 28-nation EU, forcing the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron and dealing the biggest blow to the European project of greater unity since World War Two.

“There is no future any more (for the EU),” Wilders said.

France’s far right National Front party also called for a French referendum on European Union membership, cheering a Brexit vote it hopes can boost its eurosceptic agenda.

Party leader Marine Le Pen celebrated the result by displaying the British flag on her Twitter page.

“Victory for freedom!” she said. “We now need to hold the same referendum in France and in (other) EU countries.” Her deputy, Florian Philippot said: “Our turn now #Brexit #Frexit.”

Le Pen said last month that if she won next year’s French presidential election she would immediately start negotiations on a series of sovereignty issues including the single currency. If those failed, she would ask voters to back leaving the EU.

She is the front-runner among likely candidates ahead of the vote, although polls see her losing the run-off.

Analysts and a few FN officials and allies have said its protectionist, anti-euro policy was partly to blame for holding the party back in the past. But the Brexit vote could help it overcome this, Ifop pollster’s analyst Frederic Dabi said.

“OUR TURN”

The populist anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DF), an ally of Denmark’s right-leaning government, also called for a referendum on membership of the European Union.

“I believe that the Danes obviously should have a referendum on whether we want to follow Britain or keep things the way we have it now,” DF party leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl said.

The DF is not in government but is one of three parties supporting the one-party administration. Its call for a popular vote was echoed by the head of the left-wing Red-Green Alliance.

Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen rejected the calls, but acknowledged that the British vote raised the possibility of a “slimmer EU”.

In Sweden, the anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats, which has the support of around 17 percent of voters according to a poll last month, said it would step up pressure for change.

“We demand that Sweden immediately starts to renegotiate the (EU) deals we have made and that the Swedish people will be able to speak up about a future EU-membership in a referendum,” party leader Jimme Akesson said.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) called for the heads of the European Commission and European Parliament to resign after the Brexit vote, and said it may also call for a referendum unless the EU is reformed.

Italy’s second most popular party, the opposition 5-Star Movement described the result as a lesson in democracy and promised to pursue its own proposal for an Italian referendum on the euro.

The party, considered a genuine contender for government at the next general election, wants Italy to hold a “consultative” or non-binding referendum on whether to remain in the euro zone.

“Whether you like it or not the British people have chosen,” said lower house deputy Alessandro Di Battista, a member of 5-Star’s leadership committee.

The right-wing Northern League, a member of Italy’s opposition center-right, was more outspoken. “Thank you Great Britain, next it is our turn,” party leader Matteo Salvini said.

 

(Reporting by Martin Dunai in Budapest, Ingrid Melander in Paris, Teis Jensen in Copenhagen, Gavin Jones in Rome and Kirsti Knolle in Vienna; Writing by Dominic Evans; editing by John Stonestreet)

Photo: Dutch far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders attends a joint news conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, June 16, 2015. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Trump Meets With Italian Far-Right Leader In Pennsylvania

Trump Meets With Italian Far-Right Leader In Pennsylvania

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has spent much of his campaign trying to convince the American public that all of the racists and white nationalists supporting him must have done so by mistake. But a meeting on Monday with an Italian far-right political leader known for his xenophobic remarks has shown that Trump’s casual racism is anything but.

While the contents of their 20-minute discussion were not publicized, Trump and Matteo Salvini, leader of the xenophobic Italian Lega Nord and member of the European Parliament, are natural allies. They’re bombastic in their rhetoric, represent a resurgent right wing in their respective countries and have praised — or in Trump’s case, retweeted — Italian fascist Benito Mussolini.

In addition leaving Italy on the eve of its Liberation Day celebrations, which mark the end of Italy’s fascist government, Salvini one-upped Trump in his praise of Il Duce.

“Mussolini did many good things in the twenty years before the racial laws and the alliance with Hitler,” said Salvini during a radio interview in February. Among the “good things” Mussolini did before allying himself with Adolf Hitler was crush political dissent, severely curtail press freedom, outlaw labor strikes and established a police state to reinforce his dominance over the country.

The Philadelphia meeting was organized by Amato Berardi, president of the National Italian-American PAC and a former Italian parliamentarian who represented Silvio Berlusconi’s The People for Freedom Party (PdL), now part of the Forza Italia party. Since Berlusconi’s final exit as Italy’s prime minister in 2011, Salvini has sought to become the next undisputed leader of the Italian right.

Towards the end of their meeting, Trump wished Salvini well. “Matteo, I hope you become prime minister soon,” Trump told him, according Italian news agency ANSA.

The Lega Nord head has been dubbed “the most dangerous man in Italy” by The Daily Beast. He has often invoked the same anti-establishment language used by Trump, but aimed at what many perceive to be Europe’s establishment, the European Union itself. “The problem isn’t [Italian Prime Minister Matteo] Renzi,” said Salvini during a rally in March 2015 in Rome. “Renzi is a pawn. Renzi is a dumb slave at the disposal of nameless people who want to control all of our lives from Brussels.”

And the party’s xenophobia isn’t relegated to the eccentricities of its outspoken leader. In a 2010 U.S. State Department report, it noted that despite encouraging engagement with all of Italy’s parties, regardless of their political stances, Lega Nord party members disqualified themselves several times from taking part in those initiatives.

The embassy had rescinded one nomination [to the International Leadership Visitor Program] after the candidate was convicted for an incident of racial incitement and froze another after a prospective nongov­ernmental host discovered prejudicial information about the candidate online.

Similarly, Freedom House reports going back as far as 2004 have warned that “The Lega Nord party continues to inject intolerance into national politics by organizing anti-Islamic campaigns, protesting, for example, the building of mosques.”

It is notable, though, that not all of Europe’s far right leaders support Trump, even if they risk becoming a minority in their own movements. Marine Le Pen, the most recognizable face of Europe’s new, younger far right leaders, has been decidedly cool about the racist businessman’s rhetoric, even towards Muslims, a demographic she constantly attacks at home. “Seriously, have you ever heard me say something like that?” said Le Pen in response to Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. “I defend all the French people in France, regardless of their origin, regardless of their religion.”

The risks of a Trump presidency go far beyond American shores. His victory would undoubtedly buoy the hopes of politicians like Salvini, who are jumping on the Trump anti-establishment, anti-immigrant bandwagon in the hopes that his victory would present them with a roadmap to their own victories back home. The below photo of the insignia of the neo-Nazi Greek party, Golden Dawn, superimposed over Trump’s face is just one sign of growing support for his ideas and rhetoric on the other side of the Atlantic.

Electoral victory for these parties isn’t unthinkable, especially not for Salvini. Polls last summer put his popularity at a few points below Italy’s current prime minister, a truly dangerous prospect in this dangerous time.

Photo: European Union 2015 – European Parliament/Flickr