Category Archives: The far right

The EU is braced for a rise in the hard right. But will the centre normalise it?

Posted on by

Veterans in bloc will have to adjust to new reality as rightwing groups expected to have real influence for first time

When the results of the European parliamentary elections start to emerge on Sunday night, polls suggest they will show that the world’s only directly elected transnational assembly will have tilted, unambiguously, to the right.

Yet, for all the talk of a significant surge in support for the forces of Europe’s hard right, their gains should prove broadly in line with a steady progression over the past couple of decades or more. The difference will be in the response.

Continue reading...

Rise of far right makes reparations debate tough, says Cape Verde president

Posted on by

José Maria Neves says governments should still try to have such conversations and build solutions using diplomatic corridors

Cape Verde’s president, José Maria Neves, said the rise of rightwing populism has made it difficult to hold a serious debate about colonial reparations but argued that should not stop governments from having those conversations behind closed doors.

In an interview with the news site Brasil Já, published on Wednesday, Neves said debating reparations in the “public arena” could lead to more political polarisation in countries such as Cape Verde’s former coloniser, Portugal, where the far right is on the rise.

Continue reading...

Far-right AfD party candidate stabbed in Mannheim

Posted on by

Heinrich Koch reportedly stabbed in altercation over election posters days after police officer died in attack in same German city

Politicians in Germany have pleaded for calm on the campaign trail after a candidate for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party was stabbed in the south-west German city of Mannheim, less than a week after a police officer was killed in a knife attack in the city.

The attack, which took place on Tuesday evening but was confirmed by police on Wednesday, left the politician with non-life threatening injuries for which he is being treated in hospital.

Continue reading...

Giorgia Meloni has emerged as a kingmaker for the EU – but will she turn to centre right or far right? | Jon Henley

Posted on by

Even her toughest opponents admit she’s played it cleverly. Yet the long-term aims of Italy’s prime minister remain unclear

When she became Italy’s prime minister in October 2022, Giorgia Meloni looked like Brussels’ worst nightmare. Until then, the fiery leader of the Brothers of Italy – a party with neofascist roots – had seemed anything but EU-friendly.

For years, railing against the bloc had been Meloni’s stock in trade: the euro amounted to enslavement, the European Commission was effectively a loan shark. “Bring down this EU!” she urged the 2019 conservative CPAC conference in the US.

Continue reading...

‘She just says blah blah’: why Italy’s downtrodden believe Meloni is doing nothing for them

Posted on by

The PM is talking up her underdog credentials ahead of this week’s European elections. But many in an impoverished Rome neighbourhood are sceptical

Sitting in the dark, cramped dining room of her home in Tor Bella Monaca, a densely populated council estate on the outskirts of Rome, Giovanna has just returned from one of several cleaning jobs the 70-year-old does to keep her family afloat. Her husband works on construction sites intermittently. The couple, whose youngest son, Cristian, 26, lives at home, might be depicted as borgatara, a slur in Roman dialect that, loosely translated, means a poor person living on the socially deprived fringes of the Italian capital.

Referring to her own upbringing in Garbatella, a traditionally working-class district within easy reach of Rome’s famed monuments, the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said earlier this month she was “a proud borgatara”.

Continue reading...

German police shoot knifeman after attack on rightwing protest

Posted on by

Suspect wounded and officer injured after stabbing of far-right activist at rally in Mannheim

German police have shot and wounded a man who injured six people in a knife attack on a rightwing demonstration in the south-western city of Mannheim.

Footage showed a bearded man wearing glasses attacking people in the city’s central Marktplatz. One person appeared to be stabbed in the leg and a police officer who tried to intervene appeared to be cut in the neck. Another officer then shot the attacker.

Continue reading...

French PM says voters for far right may end up like Britons ‘who cry over Brexit’

Posted on by

Gabriel Attal cautions against backing Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, which leads solidly in polls for European elections

The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has said voters choosing the far right in the European elections next week risk becoming like British people who regret backing Brexit.

“Don’t be like the British who cried after Brexit,” he told RTL radio on Thursday. “A large majority of British people regret Brexit and sometimes regret not turning out to vote, or voting for something that was negative for their country.

Continue reading...

Revealed: how a US far-right group is influencing anti-gay policies in Africa

Posted on by

US anti-pornography campaigning group has advised, promoted and endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ activists and politicians in Uganda

A long-standing US anti-pornography campaigning group has advised, promoted and endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ activists and politicians in Uganda, including a governing party member who endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ laws by saying gays “should be castrated”, and a virulently homophobic founder of a “militaristic” Christian boys camp.

The revelations about Washington DC-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and its spin-offs and affiliates – based on documents, audio and video recordings and open-source materials – raise questions about its recent disavowals of its history of anti-LGBTQ+ positions, and its role in Uganda’s passage last year of laws on homosexuality which are among the most punitive and restrictive in the world.

Continue reading...

Greens ‘will not back von der Leyen’ for re-election if she does deal with far right

Posted on by

German Green MEP chair warns that EU plan to tackle climate crisis will be put at risk by agreement with hard right parties

Green members of the European parliament will not support Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as the commission president if she makes a deal with hard-right nationalists, the party’s joint lead candidate has said.

Terry Reintke, the German Green MEP chair, said her group would “absolutely” not support von der Leyen – the incumbent centre-right commission president who is seeking a second term – if she made a deal with the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s group in the European parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).

Continue reading...

Munich’s Oktoberfest to ban Italian disco hit co-opted by far right

Posted on by

Managers say no place at beer festival for song adapted with Nazi slogan ‘Germany for the Germans, foreigners out’

The managers of Munich’s Oktoberfest have said they will seek to ban an Italian disco hit from being played at the world’s most famous beer festival after its hijacking by far-right revellers.

In recent months the schmaltzy love lyrics of L’amour Toujours, a catchy 2001 hit by Italian DJ Gigi D’Agostino, have repeatedly been drowned out at public gatherings by a Nazi slogan: “Germany for the Germans, foreigners out”.

Continue reading...

Le Pen invites Meloni to form ‘super-group’ in European parliament

Posted on by

French far right leader suggests alliance of ID and ECR groups, including Italian PM’s Brothers of Italy

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has suggested the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, join forces with her in a new alliance, as the EU’s resurgent but divided nationalist parties gear up for European parliamentary elections next month.

The move came as European centre-left parties reiterated a warning to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, that they would not support her bid for a second term if it entailed the backing of hard-right parties – including Meloni’s.

Continue reading...

Italian anti-fascist goes on trial in Hungary accused of attacking neo-Nazis

Posted on by

Ilaria Salis, 39, says she is being persecuted for her beliefs in case that has led to tensions between two countries

An Italian anti-fascist activist has gone on trial in Hungary for allegedly attacking neo-Nazis, in a case that has sparked tensions between the two EU allies.

Ilaria Salis, 39, arrived at the Budapest court accompanied by her father, with Italy’s ambassador and a throng of Italian journalists also in attendance. She left to applause after the court heard testimony from one of the victims and two witnesses. None of the three could personally identify Salis, as their attackers were masked.

Continue reading...

Left-wing parties rule out alliances with far right ahead of European elections

Posted on by

Signatories, including MEP Raphaël Glucksmann and Frans Timmermans, promise to ‘combat hatred, racism and xenophobia’

Leading left-wing parties across Europe have ruled out alliances with the far right and pledged to “relentlessly combat hatred, racism and xenophobia” ahead of European parliamentary elections likely to see significant gains by hardline nationalists.

“Turbulent times require a clear course and a firm attitude. They do not tolerate vagueness or cowardice,” said the joint appeal, published on Thursday and shared with the Guardian. “The time has come to become democrats of combat, no longer of habit or comfort.”

Continue reading...

EU’s far-right parties expel Germany’s AfD from their group

Posted on by

ID group of populist parties cuts off Alternative für Deutschland after its candidate’s comments that SS were ‘not all criminals’

The far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has been expelled from its pan-European parliamentary group after a string of recent controversies over its policy choices and the conduct of some of its leaders.

“The bureau of the Identity and Democracy group in the European parliament has decided today to exclude the German delegation, AfD, with immediate effect,” the ID group of populist far-right parties said in a statement on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Europe’s far right in disarray as Germany’s AfD candidate resigns

Posted on by

Maximilian Krah’s SS remark highlights growing divisions within European far-right and nationalist groups

The lead candidate for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the European parliamentary election has resigned from the German far-right party’s leadership, as growing divisions between Europe’s nationalist parties threaten to undermine their expected gains in next month’s ballot.

Maximilian Krah, who last weekend told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the SS, the Nazis’ main paramilitary force, were “not all criminals”, said in a statement on Wednesday that his comments were “being misused as a pretext to damage our party”.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris calls Trump’s mention of ‘unified reich’ in video ‘appalling’ – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on 2024 US elections coverage, you can read more here.

A group of Democratic and Republican US senators has condemned the international criminal court (ICC) after its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, yesterday requested arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Yoav Gallant and the leaders of Hamas.

In a statement, the Democrats Ben Cardin, Richard Blumenthal, Jeanne Shaheen and John Fetterman and the Republicans Lindsey Graham, Jim Risch, Katie Britt and John Thune argued the ICC should have consulted further with Israel before Khan’s decision to seek warrants.

Representatives of the ICC were supposed to be in Israel today to set up meetings between Israeli officials and ICC Prosecutor Khan’s team next week to discuss allegations and concerns. This was a process we encouraged, as it is consistent with the principle of complementarity.

The ICC’s precipitous action in applying for arrest warrants in this instance runs contrary to the promotion of rule of law globally; Israel has a long history as a functioning democracy, with an independent judiciary and military justice system. We have great confidence in the Israeli judicial system’s ability to administer justice. The principle of complementarity should be honored, allowing a nation’s legal system to act first.

Continue reading...

Nine on trial in Frankfurt on charges of plotting to overthrow German state

Posted on by

Self-styled aristocrat, a former judge and retired military officers among suspected Reichsbürger members appear in court

A group including a self-styled aristocrat, a former far-right politician and retired military officers sought the approval of the Russian state as it plotted a violent “seizure of power” in covert meetings at motorway service stations and a hunting lodge, a court in Germany has heard.

On the first day of their trial, nine defendants appeared in court in Frankfurt charged with high treason, facing allegations they plotted over a period of about 18 months to overthrow the state.

Continue reading...

European far-right leaders gather ahead of EU elections

Posted on by

Le Pen, Orbán and Meloni rail against socialism and ‘massive illegal migration’ at ‘great patriotic convention’ in Madrid

International far-right leaders, including France’s Marine Le Pen, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Argentina’s Javier Milei, came together in Madrid to rail against socialism and “massive illegal migration” three weeks before hard-right parties are expected to see a surge in support in June’s European elections.

Sunday’s “great patriotic convention”, which was organised by Spain’s far-right Vox party, offered conservatives and far-right populists a chance to congregate and take aim at a variety of familiar targets, from the welfare state to “wokeness” and the agendas of Brussels-based bureaucrats.

Continue reading...

Missouri Republican party fails to boot KKK-linked candidate from gubernatorial ticket

Posted on by

Judge declines to remove Darrell McClanahan, who claims one-year honorary membership in terror group, from GOP primary race

A long-shot Missouri gubernatorial candidate with ties to the Ku Klux Klan will stay on the Republican ticket, a judge ruled on Friday.

Cole county circuit court judge Cotton Walker denied a request by the Missouri GOP to kick Darrell McClanahan out of the August Republican primary.

Continue reading...

Far-right Geert Wilders agrees deal for Dutch coalition government

Posted on by

Wilders will not become next Dutch PM in experimental ‘business government’ arrangement

The Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has agreed the basis of his first rightwing coalition government in the Netherlands.

Six months after his shock win of a quarter of parliamentary seats, his anti-Islam, anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV) will take the lead in an uneasy four-party coalition.

Continue reading...