Category Archives: The far right

French far right’s new face: the meteoric rise of Éric Zemmour

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The controversial TV pundit recently overtook Marine Le Pen in presidential election opinion polls

He has been convicted for inciting racial hatred, attacked by historians for claiming the Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Pétain saved French Jews rather than aiding their deportation to death camps, and was this week described by the French justice minister as a dangerous racist and Holocaust denier.

But Éric Zemmour, a far-right French TV pundit, is rising so fast in opinion polls for president that one survey this week found he could make the final round of the April election and take 45% of the vote against the centrist Emmanuel Macron.

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Rachele Mussolini wins most votes in Rome city council election

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Far-right Brothers of Italy candidate is granddaughter of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini

The granddaughter of Benito Mussolini won the highest number of votes in elections for Rome’s city council as support for Brothers of Italy, the far-right party to which she belongs, edged up in northern cities held by the left.

Rachele Mussolini secured more than 8,200 votes in the municipal elections on Sunday and Monday, an increase on the 657 received when she entered the council on her first mandate in 2016.

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Far-right candidate leads in Rome’s mayoral elections

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Current mayor Virginia Raggi lags third behind Brothers of Italy and Democratic party

The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, is in danger of being ousted in local elections, according to exit polls, which showed a far-right candidate ahead in the race for Italy’s capital.

Raggi was hoping to win a second mandate, but exit polls place her in third position with between 16.5% and 20.5% of the vote.

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California synagogue killer not allowed to speak as he gets life without parole

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Judge denies white supremacist, 22, opportunity to address court as survivors of 2019 attack give moving statements

A 22-year-old white supremacist was denied a chance to address a courtroom before a judge sentenced him Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for bursting into a southern California synagogue on the last day of Passover in 2019 with a semiautomatic rifle, killing one worshipper and wounding three others.

An agreement with prosecutors that spared John T Earnest the death penalty left little suspense about the outcome, but the hearing provided 13 victims and families a chance to address the killer and gave a sense of finality to a case illustrating how online hate speech can lead to extremist violence. Many gave heart-wrenching accounts of how their lives were upended and how determined they were to persevere despite such devastating loss.

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‘In Rome, nothing works’: citizens despair in run-up to mayoral elections

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Virginia Raggi hasn’t solved waste issues while far-right candidate advocates restoring fascist salute

Elio Perugini can’t remember the last time he had a decent night’s sleep. “It’s a disaster, the noise just doesn’t stop,” he said. “I hardly sleep any more. The worst of it is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.”

Sleepless nights have become the norm for many in Trastevere, a neighbourhood in central Rome once treasured for its charm and old-world feel, but now known for its rowdy nightlife, petty crime, piles of rubbish and graffiti-scarred walls.

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Macron in visa cuts row as Algeria summons French envoy

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President accused of chasing rightwing votes by making sudden, tough gestures on immigration

The Algerian foreign ministry has summoned the French ambassador for talks in “formal protest” against France’s decision to sharply reduce the number of visas granted to Algerian nationals, as opposition parties in Paris accused Emmanuel Macron of using the row to court rightwing voters.

The French government announced this week that it would substantially cut the number of visas granted to people from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, three north African countries which were all part of France’s former colonial empire and where many people have strong family ties in France.

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Germany election: far-right AfD loses status as main opposition

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Party that entered German parliament in 2017 drops about 2% nationally despite performing strongly in east

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which made a whirlwind entry into the German parliament in 2017, is set to lose its status as the main opposition force following Sunday’s election but has at the same time emerged as the strongest party in parts of eastern Germany.

The party, which rose to prominence on an anti-immigrant ticket after the arrival of around 1m refugees in 2015 but has more recently focused its attention on attacking the government’s pandemic management, dropped just over 2% nationally to secure 10.3% of the vote.

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Hard-left presidential candidate and far-right pundit meet in French TV ‘cockfight’

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Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Éric Zemmour slug it out in much-publicised two-hour debate

Two men; two completely different visions for France.

In a debate that lasted more than two hours, the hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the hard-right Éric Zemmour, expected to be a presidential candidate, went head to head on prime-time television on Thursday evening.

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Zinedine becomes Antoine as satirical site fixes ‘un-French’ names

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Site ridicules far-right suggestion that people should be made to have ‘more French’ names

When a far-right political journalist and possible presidential contender began talking about people having “un-French” names, there really was only one response: satire.

The humorous website Vite Mon Prénom (My Name, Quick) was set up to offer a one-click test to find out if your name is French enough, based on a repealed 1803 law, and suggest alternatives if it is considered unacceptably foreign.

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Washington rally in support of 6 January rioters falls short of expectations

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Police prepared for trouble at event near Capitol but only a few hundred attended as politicians and pro-Trump groups did not

Any passing American might have been forgiven for thinking they had stumbled on one of the great human rights struggles of our time.

Related: Peril review: Bob Woodward Trump trilogy ends on note of dire warning

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Far-right journalist quits French TV show amid election rumours

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Éric Zemmour is about to begin a book tour, but has not yet announced his candidacy for president

The French far-right journalist and commentator Éric Zemmour has stepped down from his nightly TV show, heightening speculation that he could make an outsider bid to run in next year’s French presidential election.

The 63-year-old, who was a political journalist for Le Figaro, holds convictions for inciting hatred and is best known for his TV diatribes against immigration and Islam.

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Pope urges Hungary to ‘extend its arms to everyone’ in veiled Orbán critique

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Pontiff’s statement at start of four-day central Europe tour at odds with far-right PM’s anti-migrant stance

Pope Francis has urged Hungary to “extend its arms towards everyone” in an apparent veiled critique of Viktor Orbán’s anti-migrant policies, as the pontiff began a four-day visit to central Europe in his first big international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July.

Francis, 84, appeared in good form during his visit to Budapest, presiding over a lengthy mass and standing as he waved to crowds from his open-sided popemobile. He used a golf cart to avoid walking long distances indoors and confessed at one point that he had to sit because “I’m not 15 any more”. But otherwise he kept up the typical gruelling pace of a papal trip.

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Alt-right finds new partners in hate on China’s internet

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Populists and nationalists are spreading anti-Muslim, anti-feminist messages – but also backing the Communist party line

In the early days of the 2016 US election campaign, Fang Kecheng, a former journalist at the liberal-leaning Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly and then a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, began fact-checking Donald Trump’s statements on refugees and Muslims on Chinese social media, hoping to provide additional context to the reporting of the presidential candidate back home in China. But his effort was quickly met with fierce criticism on the Chinese internet.

Some accused him of being a “white left” – a popular insult for idealistic, leftwing and western-oriented liberals; others labelled him a “virgin”, a “bleeding heart” and a “white lotus” – demeaning phrases that describe do-gooders who care about the underprivileged - as he tried to defend women’s rights.

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Trudeau accuses far-right website of spreading vaccine misinformation

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Canadian PM’s response to Rebel Media goes viral after court victory allows them to attend election debate

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has slammed a far-right website in the final days of the country’s federal election, accusing it of spreading misinformation about coronavirus vaccines and contributing to the growing number of protests across the country.

After Wednesday night’s French language debate between federal leaders, Trudeau was asked by a member of Rebel News – a website whose contributors have included Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson – if he would continue to exclude the group from covering the election.

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Far-right terror poses bigger threat to US than Islamist extremism post-9/11

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Since the 9/11 attack, far-right extremists killed more people in the US than did American-based Islamist fundamentalists

Donald Trump’s presidency was bookended with two of the ugliest outbursts of white nationalist violence in 21st century America – the 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville and the 2021 storming of the US Capitol by his extremist supporters to sabotage the election results.

Rightwing apologists like to downplay these lethal events or dismiss them as aberrations, but experts warn this is a form of terrorism that’s not only entrenched but has ballooned to become the biggest domestic security threat in the US.

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Close to home: how US far-right terror flourished in post-9/11 focus on Islam

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The far right and white supremacists are responsible for the vast majority of extremist-related fatalities but only a fraction of counter-terrorism resources are devoted to them

The US government acted quickly after 9/11 to prevent further attacks by Islamic extremists in the US. Billions of dollars were spent on new law enforcement departments and vast powers were granted to agencies to surveil people in the US and abroad as George W Bush announced the war on terror.

But while the FBI, CIA, police and the newly created Department of Homeland Security scoured the country and the world for radicalized Muslims, an existing threat was overlooked – white supremacist extremists already in the US, whose numbers and influence have continued to grow in the last two decades.

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Capitol police officers sue Trump and far-right groups over 6 January attack

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• Roger Stone also named in suit by six officers in federal court

• Ex-president worked with others to ‘commit acts of … terrorism’

Capitol police officers who were attacked and beaten during the insurrection at the US Congress on 6 January by extremist supporters of Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the former Republican president, his ally Roger Stone and members of far-right extremist groups.

The officers accused them of intentionally sending a violent mob to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election.

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Gunshots fired at far-right Proud Boys rally in Portland – video

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A protest on Sunday in Portland, Oregon culminated in a gunfight, when antifascist demonstrators returned fire at a man who shot at them with a handgun in a downtown street.

Portland police bureau confirmed that a man had been arrested over the shooting, which came after a day of protest descended into running clashes involving hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters

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Hundreds clash in Portland as Proud Boys rally descends into violence

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Running street battle ends in gunfight after ‘Summer of love’ protest in a parking lot of a former Kmart store

A rightwing protest in Portland on Sunday has culminated in a gunfight, when antifascist demonstrators returned fire at a man who shot at them with a handgun in a downtown street.

The firefight took place in the heart of downtown Portland, soon after 6pm. As antifascists followed a man at a distance who they were trying to eject from the area, he took cover behind an electrical substation box, produced a handgun and opened fire. He fired at least two shots before an antifascist returned fire with their own handgun. At least seven shots were fired.

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The Covid crisis suits rightwing media personalities as they monetise fear | Jeff Sparrow

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Their success depends not on providing solutions but on ginning up, by any means necessary, the conservative base

The pandemic has upended all our lives, leaving many of us frightened and confused. But if the weekend’s angry anti-lockdown protests reflected genuine pain in the community, they also showed how, in a complicated international emergency, rightwing grifters have seized an opportunity.

If you look for Covid truth on Telegram and Gab, you’ll uncover the online equivalent of a crowded outdoor market, dominated by shouting stall holders.

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