Category Archives: The far right

Argentina holds breath as far-right Milei seizes narrow runoff advantage

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Populist provocateur appears slight favorite over Peronist Sergio Massa as 35m Argentinians vote to choose new president

Argentina is teetering on the brink of an unpredictable new political era this weekend with an erratic far-right populist known as “El Loco” (the Madman) the slight favourite to become president of South America’s second-largest economy in Sunday’s election.

As polls opened on Sunday morning against a backdrop of soaring inflation and widespread poverty, analysts believed Javier Milei, a TV celebrity turned congressman, held a slender advantage over his rival, the finance minister, Sergio Massa, but said the result was too close to call.

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Venice Biennale’s new, rightwing director has art world guessing

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Meloni’s party is pleased by the appointment but Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has surprised before – not least by adopting Islam

When Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the incoming new president of the Venice Biennale, was once asked in an interview whether he was a fascist, the Italian rightwing journalist and public intellectual replied: “I am not a fascist. I am something else.”

After Buttafuoco was this week officially nominated to lead the oldest and largest cultural exhibition in the world, it is not just the artists, actors, architects, film-makers, dancers and musicians whose work will be shown at the coming biennales’ six events who are asking themselves what exactly that “something else” may be.

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David DePape found guilty in hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband

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Rightwing conspiracy theorist convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault in 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi

David DePape, the rightwing conspiracy theorist who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband in their San Francisco home, has been convicted of attempted kidnapping and assault.

The federal jury’s decision on Thursday comes after a dramatic trial in which Paul Pelosi testified about the “traumatic” hammer attack he suffered on 28 October 2022, days before the midterm elections. DePape also took the stand in his defense, saying he had planned to interrogate the former House speaker and post footage of her online.

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Pro-Palestine protesters assemble in London as police jostle with far-right groups

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Organisers say rally on Armistice Day could be one of the largest political marches in British history

Protesters have begun assembling for a pro-Palestinian rally in London that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands on Saturday, while police have jostled with far-right groups attempting to reach the Cenotaph.

Organisers say that the pro-Palestine march, which has been the backdrop to a political row over Suella Braverman’s public criticism of the policing of protests, could be one of the biggest political marches in British history.

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Spanish PM Sánchez set to stay in power with controversial Catalan amnesty deal

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Socialist party wins separatist support with offer that has provoked furious opposition, protests and questions from Brussels

Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is on the verge of securing another term in office after his socialist party won the support of Catalan separatists by offering a deeply controversial amnesty for those who took part in the illegal and failed push for regional independence six years ago.

The deal between the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and the centre-right Junts (Together) comes after a week of tense negotiations and amid widespread concerns over the amnesty, which have led to street protests, dire warnings from conservative judges and questions from Brussels.

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Dozens injured in protests at Spanish socialist party’s Madrid headquarters

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About 7,000 demonstrated against deal plan for Catalan separatists with 30 police and others hurt in violence

Thirty-nine people, including 30 police officers, have been injured outside the Madrid headquarters of Spain’s ruling socialist party amid angry demonstrations against the party’s plans to offer an agreement deal to Catalan separatists to help it secure another term in government.

About 7,000 people gathered outside the offices of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) on Calle de Ferraz on Tuesday night to protest against the proposed agreement. The demonstration, which was attended by members of the far-right Vox party and by fascist and neo-fascist groups, led to skirmishes between protesters and riot police, who responded with teargas and baton charges.

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Chile’s right wing presents draft conservative constitution

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Draft, which some observers consider a step backwards, could threaten rights to abortion and collective strike action

Chile’s radical right wing have presented their conservative vision for the future in a draft constitution that some observers consider a step backwards for the country.

The new draft, which could replace the current Pinochet-era charter, was drawn up by a council led by the far-right Republican party and could threaten access to abortion, curb the right to collective strike action, and would reduce the number of deputies elected to Chile’s congress.

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Hungary sacks museum chief for not enforcing under-18s ban at LGBTQ+ exhibition

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László Simon dismissed after National Museum allowed children to visit a World Press Photo show

The director of Budapest’s National Museum has been fired from his role over a contentious anti-LGBTQ+ law that he himself voted for when he was a member of parliament.

Hungary’s government on Monday dismissed director László Simon after his museum allowed under-18s to visit a World Press Photo exhibition featuring images of LGBTQ+ people, despite laws banning the “promotion of homosexuality” to minors.

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Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel seen as move away from party’s antisemitic past

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National Rally has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself and promised to protect French Jews

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks is being seen as part of a long-running drive to move her National Rally party away from its toxic, antisemitic past before a run for the presidency in 2027.

National Rally, which is now the biggest opposition party in the French parliament and is polling ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s centrists for next year’s European elections, has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself since the Hamas attacks on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

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BTS and Taylor Swift fans give Javier Milei and his running mate an earful

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Argentinian Swifties say ‘Milei is Trump’ as devotees of BTS decry ‘hatred and xenophobia’ of Victoria Villarruel’s tweets about group

Weeks before Argentina’s run-off election, far-right populist Javier Milei and his running mate, Victoria Villaruel, have found themselves under pressure from an unexpected quarter: an alliance of Taylor Swift supporters and K-pop fans.

Milei, a radical libertarian who has proposed dollarizing Argentina’s economy and even legalizing the organ trade, topped the polls ahead of Sunday’s first round, but was beaten into second place by the centrist finance minister, Sergio Massa.

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Orbán is lonelier than ever on the European stage – but he’s still got cards to play

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The defeat of Poland’s Law and Justice party and Turkey moving towards ratifying Sweden’s Nato bid have further isolated Hungary’s PM

Viktor Orbán is more isolated than ever – but he is still fuelling frustrations across Europe.

The Hungarian leader, one of Europe’s most prominent far-right politicians, has long been an outlier on the European stage. But, as he arrives in Brussels on Thursday for a summit of EU leaders, he will be even more lonely than usual.

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German firebrand politician quits far-left Die Linke to set up her own party

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Sahra Wagenknecht joined by nine other MPs in migration-sceptical party which will court unhappy voters on left and right

A leading German radical-left politician who has questioned the green transition and blamed the west for Russia’s war on Ukraine has left her party to set up a new one, in a move likely to cost the far right votes and further fragment the nation’s politics.

Sahra Wagenknecht, the charismatic former co-leader of the far-left Die Linke, said on Monday that the new association – named after herself – would court unhappy voters on the left and right, starting with next June’s European parliament elections.

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‘Steve Bannon is watching us closely’: Naomi Klein on populists, conspiracists and real-world activism

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Author speaks candidly about a ‘mirror world’ that feeds our anxieties, distorts reality and fuels the polarisation of society

Naomi Klein is aware that her new book, Doppelganger, looks strange. A distorted picture of her face stares at you from the front cover. “Everyone who holds it looks like they’re holding my severed head, including me. It feels like Macbeth,” she says. Her laugh punctures the quiet communal space we’re sitting in on the first floor of a London hotel in late September.

But the weirdness is intentional. It’s supposed to capture what she’s writing about – a mirror world where her sense of self becomes distorted. Her starting point is her very own doppelganger, the writer Naomi Wolf. For more than a decade Klein has repeatedly been confused with Wolf. What at first irked her became more frustrating – destabilising, even – as it moved to social media and Wolf dived full on into conspiracy culture, allying with the far right in the process. The two are so frequently mixed up that social media algorithms began to autocomplete Klein’s name when people were writing about the latest thing Wolf had said or done.

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London police defy ban on badges linked to far right and white supremacy

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Met officers seen wearing divisive ‘thin blue line’ symbol at sensitive protests despite orders to remove them

Metropolitan police officers are openly defying orders not to wear badges appropriated by the far right and linked to white supremacy.

In July, the force’s chief, Mark Rowley, banned officers from wearing the “thin blue line” badge saying that in the US an equivalent symbol had been used by “hard-right groups”.

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Far-right AfD says it is now ‘major all-German party’ after state elections

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Alternative für Deutschland comes second in Hesse and third in Bavaria as support spreads from east of country

The far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland has declared itself a “major all-German party” after winning its biggest ever vote share in a western German state.

The AfD, once seen as a party most relevant to post-communist eastern states, won 18.4% of the vote on Sunday in the powerhouse state of Hesse, around Frankfurt, and came second only to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In Bavaria it came third, behind the rightwing populist Freie Wähler (Free Voters) party.

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Mass protest in Barcelona against possible amnesty for Catalan separatists

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Tens of thousands demonstrate in Spanish region’s capital as Pedro Sánchez weighs move in attempt to form government

Tens of thousands of people have joined conservative and far-right Spanish political leaders in Barcelona to protest against the Socialist party’s decision to consider an amnesty for those involved in the failed, unlawful and unilateral push for Catalan independence six years ago.

Sunday’s demonstration, organised by the anti-independence group Societat Civil Catalana, was called after Catalan separatist parties said they would only consider supporting a new, socialist-led government following July’s inconclusive general election if they were offered an amnesty in return.

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‘Red Caesarism’ is rightwing code – and some Republicans are listening

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Argument for a ‘red Caesar’ to rule US may seem esoteric but conservative thinktank behind idea has connections to Trump

In June, rightwing academic Kevin Slack published a book-length polemic claiming that ideas that had emerged from what he called the radical left were now so dominant that the US republic its founders envisioned was effectively at an end.

Slack, a politics professor at the conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, made conspiratorial and extreme arguments now common on the antidemocratic right, that “transgenderism, anti-white racism, censorship, cronyism … are now the policies of an entire cosmopolitan class that includes much of the entrenched bureaucracy, the military, the media, and government-sponsored corporations”.

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Revealed: far-right Oath Keepers kept up dues payments after Capitol attack

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Venmo records show members of rightwing militia paid vice-president for months after group’s January 6 role was exposed

Oath Keepers members paid dues to the rightwing militia’s then vice-president for up to almost a year after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and months after the organization and its founder, Stewart Rhodes, were named in court filings as participants in the assault, according to publicly accessible transaction records on the payment platform Venmo.

Those who made payments to an Oath Keepers leader on Venmo include an engineer whose employer provides satellite technology to US government agencies including the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security, a former Department of Homeland Security employee whose tenure at the agency overlapped with his membership in the group, and a 2022 candidate for the Wyoming state senate.

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California county abuzz after far-right figure appointed for mosquito control

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Store owner in Shasta county who has elevated conspiracy theories about mosquitoes and vaccines gets seat on local board

Ever since the far-right movement in California’s Shasta county gained control of local government, they have sought to throw out voting machines in favor of hand counting and pledged to defend the second amendment using all “lawful means”.

This week they focused their efforts on a new target: mosquitoes.

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Election denier Kari Lake of Arizona to announce run for US Senate seat

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Failed far-right gubernatorial candidate is also a possible pick for Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election

The far-right Trump supporter Kari Lake still refuses to accept her defeat in the 2022 race for Arizona governor but will nonetheless run for US Senate next year.

“We need to get a senator in there who is going to fight back and put America first,” the Republican told the Wall Street Journal.

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