Tag: marine le pen
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

What World Leaders Have Been Saying About Donald Trump

What World Leaders Have Been Saying About Donald Trump

While Donald Trump has been deeply polarizing at home, foreign leaders and dignitaries have a near-unanimous view of him. Outside of his increasingly fascistic rallies, the rest of the world is shocked by the antics of the Republican Party’s lead candidate.

Let’s start with Canada, now led by a Liberal government after a decade of divisive Conservative leadership. Canadian Prime Minister and internationally renowned heartthrob Justin Trudeau has avoided getting caught in Trump’s mud-slinging crossfire. “I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anybody that I stand firmly against the politics of division, the politics of fear, the politics of intolerance or hateful rhetoric,” he said during a town hall last December with Maclean’s, a Canadian weekly. He has made a point of showing the differences between his “sunny ways” and Trump’s blatant racism, especially in light of the fear-driven and racist election strategies used by the incumbent Conservative Party during the October 2015 elections.

What about Trump’s favorite punching bag, Mexico? The unwilling treasury of The Great Trump Wall has a long, frequently unhappy history with its powerful northern neighbor. Former Mexican president Vincente Fox summed up what seems like a common sentiment — “I’m not paying for that fucking wall!” — and current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, perhaps demonstrating a sense of diplomatic civility for Trump’s sake, condemned his comments but wouldn’t go any further: “Some have hoped for the president to take a position on what Trump has said. The government […] fully discredits and condemns any expression of a discriminatory character and [any expression] that specifically hurts Mexicans,” he said.

The Europeans are, frankly, unamused. “I think his remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong, and I think if he came to visit our country, I think he would unite us all against him,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron a week after Trump made his infamous proclamation to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, whose country suffered terribly during the Paris attacks, took on Trump’s race-baiting. “Mr Trump, like others, stokes hatred: our ONLY enemy is radical Islam,” he tweeted shortly afterwards. His sentiment was not necessarily shared by all French politicians. French far right leader Jean Marie Le Pen, founder of the far right National Front Party who later kicked him out because he was so racist, has been upbeat about Trump’s candidacy. In a tweet, he wrote, “If I were American, I would vote for Donald Trump.” The endorsement came only days after Trump pretended to not know who David Duke was, after the former KKK Grand Wizard endorsed him.

German Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister Sigmar Gabriel compared Trump to Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, two notoriously right-wing politicians in Europe. “Whether Donald Trump, Marine le Pen, or Geert Wilders–all these right-wing populists are not only a threat to peace and social cohesion, but also to economic development,” he said only days ago. All were guilty of making unrealistic promises to their followers, he said, but he acknowledged that globalization needed to be reformed in a more equitable way. The loss of working class jobs among white Americans to cheaper labor markets has fueled much of Trump’s support this election.

Russian President and noted strongman Vladimir Putin has had positive words for Trump. “He is a bright and talented person without any doubt,” Putin said in December 2015. He added that Trump is “an outstanding and talented personality.” It’s only natural that Trump would be attracted to the leadership qualities of Putin, who has had political rivals killed or exiled.

In Egypt, the state’s official religious body said that “Trump’s hate rhetoric towards Muslims as a threat to the American community is totally erroneous since Islam exhorts peace and coexistence among all humans and it is unfair to blame all Muslims for the actions of a minority that manipulates the fundamentals of the religion.” (Although it’s unclear whether or not the body was equally as outspoken when Egyptian general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Sisi’s forces killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters after he overthrew Egypt’s only democratically elected government.)

As the American election draws nearer, more international leaders will likely speak out against Trump, especially if he wins the Republican nomination. Whether or not his supporters realize the threat he presents to the rest of the world, they’re all making an effort to let us know.

Photo: Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Cadillac, Michigan, March 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Young

French Far-Right Fails To Win Any Regions In Upset For Le Pen

French Far-Right Fails To Win Any Regions In Upset For Le Pen

By Ingrid Melander and Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) — Marine Le Pen’s National Front did not win any region in French elections on Sunday, in a setback to her hopes of being a serious presidential contender in 2017.

The regional election run-off, in which the conservatives won seven constituencies and the Socialists five, was no real victory for either of these two mainstream parties, shaken by the far-right’s growing appeal to disillusioned voters.

Boosted by fears about security and immigration after the Islamist militant attacks in Paris a month ago that killed 130 people, the National Front (FN) had won more votes than any other party nationally in last week’s first round.

Although it won no region on Sunday after the Socialists pulled out of its key target regions and urged their supporters to back the conservatives of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, the FN still recorded its best showing in its history.

“Tonight, there is no place for relief or triumphalism,” Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said. “The danger posed by the far right has not gone away; far from it.”

Sarkozy struck a similar theme, calling the strong FN showing a “warning sent to all politicians, ourselves included, in the first round”.

“We now have to take the time for in-depth debates about what worries the French, who expect strong and precise answers,” he said, citing Europe, unemployment, security and national identity issues.

Le Pen, who had hoped to use regional power as a springboard to boost her chances in 2017 presidential elections, lost by a huge margin in northern France on Sunday, where she led her party’s ticket, attracting 42.8 percent of the votes in the run-off vs 57.2 percent for the conservatives.

“RAMPART”

Long content with attracting protest votes, the FN has changed strategy since Le Pen took the party over from her father Jean-Marie in 2011, seeking to build a base of locally elected officials to target the top levels of power.

But while it has been winning more and more votes in each election since then, its isolation in France’s politics means it cannot strike the alliances it would need to win major constituencies. So it failed once more on Sunday to turn growing popularity into power.

In the southeast, another FN target where Le Pen’s niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen was the FN’s lead candidate, the conservatives scored 53.7 percent and the FN 46.2 percent, official results based on 84 percent of the votes said.

“There are victories that shame the winners,” Marechal-Le Pen said, slamming the Socialists’ decision to pull out of the race for the run-off.

Aside from immigration concerns, which have been boosting nationalistic parties in other European countries too, the FN’s rise has been built on deep disaffection with mainstream politics among French voters and a frustration with President Francois Hollande’s inability to reduce unemployment.

With five regional wins out of 13, the Socialists did less badly than they had feared but it was still a huge defeat. Regional boundaries were redrawn after the 2010 election, in which the Socialists had won 21 out of 22 regions.

Sarkozy, weakened by his party’s poor showing in the first round, said the National Front’s high score should be a warning to all mainstream politicians.

Among those in his party elected thanks to left-wing voters and a much higher turnout in the run-offs, there was no triumphalism.

“I thank the voters for protecting our beautiful region,” said Xavier Bertrand, the Republicans’ main candidate in Nord-Pas de Calais-Picardie. “I also want to thank the voters of the Left who clearly voted to create a rampart” against the FN.

The regional election, the last one before the 2017 presidential and parliamentary ballots, was seen as a test for its main contenders, Hollande, Sarkozy and Le Pen.

“An immediate danger was avoided,” left-leaning Catholic daily La Croix wrote in an editorial.

“But if no answers are made to the French people’s concerns, the National Front will continue its rise until the presidential election,” it said in a front-page headlined: “Defeat for all.”

(Additional reporting by Matthias Blamont, Andrew Callus, Morade Azzouz and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Andrew Callus and Jonathan Oatis)

Photo: Marine Le Pen, French National Front political party leader and candidate for the National Front in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region, speaks to journalists as she leaves the polling station after casting her ballot in the second-round regional elections in Henin-Beaumont, France, December 13, 2015. REUTERS/Yves Herman