This weekend, some of Europe’s most powerful politicians, many of whom lead the single largest parties in their respective countries, will gather in Madrid as the European Parliament’s third largest party group, the far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE), rallies under a new slogan – Make Europe great again (MEGA) – which the world’s richest man (and possibly now the world’s second most powerful man after Trump) openly supports and blesses.
The meeting is taking place in the middle of the German election campaign and when a new French government crisis is looming, while the far-right FPÖ may soon form a government in Austria and when several of the parties that are part of the PfE are currently surging in the opinion polls and hitting the roof because of a war-weary Europe where very large parts of the youth, the rural population, the working class and the lower middle class feel completely ruined by inflation and Putin prices and therefore want to see an end to support for Ukraine.
Yesterday, a mass rally also took place in the Spanish capital, organised by the host party Vox, where Dutch PVV’s Wilders, Portuguese Chegas Ventura, Greek FL’s Latinopoulou, Czech ANO’s Babiš, Hungarian Fidesz’s Orbán, French RN’s Le Pen, Italian Lega’s Salvini and Vox’ Abascal posed together on stage, filled with the new energy that Trump’s accession to power has given them. Also present was the American think tank Heritage Foundation and its director Kevin D. Roberts, who is very close to the new Trump administration.
In the various speeches, the party leaders declared war on ‘woke’ and all forms of ‘climate alarmism’ while praising Trump (Le Pen affectionately referred to him as ‘Hurricane Trump sweeping across the US’) and Orbán said that ‘yesterday we were the heretics – now we are the mainstream – we are the future’ while Wilders called for repatriation and return and Abascal a new ‘reconquista’ and this time not only of the Iberian Peninsula but of the whole of Europe. A radical right-wing hurricane is also brewing in Europe after Trump’s accession to power in the USA.
Tobias Hübinette is associate professor in intercultural education at Karlstad University in Sweden.
This text was first published on Tobias Hübinette’s blog.