Category Archives: The far right

Swedish parties agree coalition with backing of far-right

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Prospective prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, says three parties will cooperate with the Sweden Democrats

Three centre-right parties in Sweden have reached agreement on a minority coalition that will depend on parliamentary support from the Sweden Democrats, giving the far-right party direct influence over government policy for the first time.

The leader of the Moderates party, Ulf Kristersson, said on Friday it would form a government with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats after the rightwing bloc won the narrowest of majorities in the country’s 11 September elections.

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Woman, 75, held in Germany accused of leading far-right terror plot

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Retired teacher suspected of being ‘ideological brains’ behind group planning kidnappings and power station attacks

A pensioner believed to be the ringleader of a terrorist group planning to launch attacks on German politicians and power infrastructure has been remanded in custody.

Identified only as Elizabeth R in accordance with German legal norms, the 75-year-old retired teacher from the eastern state of Saxony is suspected of having been what investigators have called the “ideological brains” behind the far-right group, which had planned kidnappings and attacks on power facilities meant to cause blackouts across Germany.

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Prominent fascist’s remains to be removed from Spain’s Valley of the Fallen

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Family of José Antonio Primo de Rivera act before new legislation designed to honour civil war and dictatorship victims takes effect

The family of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Spain’s fascist Falange party, will exhume his remains from the Valley of the Fallen outside Madrid before they are removed under new legislation designed to honour the victims of the civil war and the Franco dictatorship.

Primo de Rivera, who was executed in prison in November 1936, was eventually laid to rest in the valley’s basilica in 1959. The remains of the basilica’s most infamous occupant, Gen Francisco Franco, were removed almost three years ago to end what Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called “the moral insult that the public glorification of a dictator constitutes”.

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Oath Keepers to stand trial on charges of seditious conspiracy

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Group allegedly discussed paramilitary training and ‘quick reaction force’ to get weapons to Capitol quickly on January 6

The highest-profile prosecution to stem from the January 6 attack on the US Capitol gets under way on Monday in Washington DC, where the founder and four members of the far-right Oath Keepers group will stand trial in federal court on civil war-era charges of seditious conspiracy.

It’s a high-stakes trial for the US government, which will attempt to prove that Stewart Rhodes and his associates spent weeks marshaling members of the group to prepare to use violence to deny the certification of the 2016 election and keep Donald Trump in the White House.

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Pro-Kremlin neo-Nazi militia inciting the torture and murder of Ukrainian prisoners

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Task Force Rusich, linked to the Wagner Group, advises its fighters not to report the capture of Ukrainians to Russian commanders

A neo-Nazi pro-Kremlin group active in Ukraine is inciting atrocities against prisoners of war and explicitly advocates the torture of captives including “removing body parts”. The self-styled “Task Force Rusich” is fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and is linked to the notorious Wagner Group mercenaries.

A message on Rusich’s Telegram channel sent on 22 September advocates the “destruction of prisoners on the spot”.

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Republican ex-congressman suggests colleagues ‘had serious cognitive issues’

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Paul Gosar and Louie Gohmert were eager to believe ‘wild, dramatic fantasies’, claims Denver Riggleman in new book

The Republican congressmen Louis Gohmert and Paul Gosar adopted such extreme, conspiracy-tinged positions, even before the US Capitol attack, that a fellow member of the rightwing Freedom Caucus thought they “may have had serious cognitive issues”.

Denver Riggleman, once a US representative from Virginia, reports his impression of his former colleagues from Texas and Arizona in a new book.

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Italy election: far-right Brothers of Italy set to take power; Russia ready for ‘constructive relations’ with party – as it happened

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Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party set to lead a coalition; Kremlin welcomes what it calls ‘more constructive’ parties leading Italy. This live blog is now closed

Read this analysis from our Rome correspondent, Angela Giuffrida:

Giorgia Meloni has spent three decades fighting her way to the top of Italian politics. But despite her political prowess, the 45-year-old from Rome, whose strong will and determination has drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, has limited government experience.

If Meloni is confirmed as prime minister over the next few weeks, she will be in charge of steering Italy through one of its most delicate periods, dealing with mammoth challenges from the energy crisis and high inflation to a possible recession and a winter wave of Covid-19.

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‘We need to unite against this nationalism’: Italians air fears after victory for populist right

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Observers expect Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini to float policies inimical to migrants, LGBT rights and abortions

Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League, has promised that his alliance with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy will deliver a long-lasting government as Italians began to digest the outcome of an election that delivered the country’s most rightwing government since the end of the second world war.

Final results on Monday gave the coalition control of both houses of parliament with 44% of the vote and confirmed the swing in the balance of power in the Italian far-right towards Meloni after her party made spectacular gains in the League’s northern strongholds of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia.

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Italy elections: exit polls point to victory for coalition led by far-right Giorgia Meloni

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The leader of the Brothers of Italy party appears set to become country’s first female PM

Italy election results – Live

A coalition led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy is set to form the country’s most rightwing government since the end of the second world war after exit polls gave it a clear majority.

With full results due on Monday, the far-right party leader is set to become Italy’s first female prime minister – and a model for nationalist parties across Europe as she heads one of the EU’s six original member states.

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Italy: internal rivalry could threaten the stability of a Meloni-led coalition

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Matteo Salvini has described Giorgia Meloni as a ‘pain in the ass’, while Silvio Berlusconi is rumoured to be unsupportive

Giorgia Meloni has spent three decades fighting her way to the top of Italian politics. But despite her political prowess, the 45-year-old from Rome, whose strong will and determination has drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, has limited government experience.

If Meloni is confirmed as prime minister over the next few weeks, she will be in charge of steering Italy through one of its most delicate periods, dealing with mammoth challenges from the energy crisis and high inflation to a possible recession and a winter wave of Covid-19.

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Italy braces for sharp move to the right after election voting closes

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Giorgia Meloni, who leads Brothers of Italy, looks likely to become the first woman to head a government

Italians were braced for seismic change on Saturday, on the eve of an election forecasted to hand Italy the most rightwing government since the second world war.

Giorgia Meloni, the head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, is widely tipped to become the country’s first woman to head a government.

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Brothers of Italy suspends candidate after online post praising Hitler found

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Election candidate for the rightwing party had called Hitler a ‘great statesman’ in a 2014 Facebook post

The far-right Brothers of Italy party has suspended an election candidate after it was discovered he had praised Adolf Hitler and described the group’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, as a “modern fascist”.

Calogero Pisano, a coordinator for Brothers of Italy in the Sicilian province of Agrigento, wrote on Facebook in 2014 that the Nazi leader was “a great statesman”.

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‘We have reason to worry’: Italian left’s rising star Elly Schlein on the far-right threat

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‘Italy’s AOC’ says the left has to try to regain trust and win over undecided voters before Sunday’s election

A rising star of Italy’s leftwing alliance has said it is working to regain trust as it seeks to tap the 40% of voters who are unsure of who to back in Sunday’s general election, and pledged to “fight until the very last day” to fend off what could be Italy’s first far-right government since the second world war.

Elly Schlein, a former MEP, first came to prominence in early 2020 after her small party, Coraggiosa (Courageous), played a pivotal role in stopping the far right from seizing power in the traditionally leftwing Emilia-Romagna region.

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Far-right Sweden Democrats poised to wield influence in new government

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Leader of centre-right Moderates formally asked to try to form coalition that could include anti-migrant populists

The leader of Sweden’s third largest party – the centre-right Moderates – has been formally asked to try to form a government that could include the far-right, populist Sweden Democrats, either inside a governing coalition or outside to secure a majority.

In Sweden’s election on 11 September, the country’s four centre-right and far-right parties won 176 seats, while the centre-left coalition that includes the ruling Social Democrats got 173 seats. Andreas Norlén, the speaker of the 349-seat Swedish parliament, the Riksdagen, has asked Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Moderates, to see if he can form a governing coalition.

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Far-right contender for Italian PM softens on EU as election looms

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Giorgia Meloni once railed against Brussels, but experts suggest favourite to replace Draghi has no interest in rocking boat

At a gathering of Europe’s far right in February 2020, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, railed against the “Brussels techno bureaucrats” who she said wanted to impose “the Soviet plan to destroy national and religious identities” – a typically bombastic claim of Eurosceptic nationalists. Now on the brink of becoming Italy’s first far-right prime minister, Meloni is sounding a rather different tune.

In an opinion article for Il Messaggero newspaper last month, Meloni said she wanted to work “in compliance with European regulations and in agreement with the [European] Commission” to use EU resources to promote Italy’s growth and innovation – a line so conventional it could drop into the speech of any aspiring pro-EU technocrat. Speaking in a video message broadcast in English, French and Spanish, she hit back at the “absurd narrative” her party would jeopardise Italy’s access to €191.5bn (£166.26bn) in EU Covid recovery funds. Meloni, who has sought to distance the Brothers of Italy from its fascist origins, said her party shared “values and experiences” with British Conservatives, US Republicans and Israel’s Likud party.

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Tough, determined, fascinated by Mussolini: Rome neighbours recall Giorgia Meloni

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Residents in traditionally leftwing Garbatella district not surprised by rise of woman poised to be Italy’s next PM

Half-torn posters, one with a still fairly legible slogan, are all that remain of a branch of the youth wing of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) in Rome’s traditionally leftwing and working-class Garbatella district, where Giorgia Meloni, poised to become Italy’s prime minister after elections next weekend, grew up and charted her political path.

Undeterred by the at times violent confrontations between young left and rightwing militants in the early 1990s, and the messages to “kill the fascists” daubed on the walls of Garbatella, Meloni knocked on its door aged 15 and signed up.

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Why Italy is on verge of electing its first far-right leader since second world war

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Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy draw on a vein of fascism in a country that – unlike Germany – has never had to confront its past

A hundred years after the rise of Italian fascism was heralded by Mussolini’s 1922 march on Rome, the country is on the verge of electing a party with its roots in neo-fascism.

With just over a week to go until polling day, the smiling face of Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, is emblazoned on thousands of posters from the heel in the south to the Alps in the north.

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Hungary tightens abortion access with listen to ‘foetal heartbeat’ rule

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Fears move will pave way for more restrictions in country where terminations are widely accepted

Hungarian women seeking an abortion will be obliged to “listen to the foetal heartbeat” before they can access the procedure, according to a new decree issued by the government of the far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

The new regulation is due to come into force on Thursday.

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Swedish rightwing on verge of narrow election win but waits on final tally

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Bloc including far-right Sweden Democrats on course for one-seat majority with last votes to be counted

Sweden’s future is balanced on a knife-edge as the country awaits a final tally of the votes in Sunday’s general election, in which a loose bloc of rightwing parties led by the far-right Sweden Democrats – now the second largest party – holds the slimmest of majorities.

With 95% of the vote counted, the right bloc was on 49.7%, while four parties on the left, including the incumbent Social Democrats, stood at 49%. The final picture will come on Wednesday after the votes of Swedish citizens living abroad and those of some who voted early are counted.

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Rightwing bloc heading to victory in Swedish election, 90% of vote count suggests

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Far-right Sweden Democrats appear to be close to causing earthquake in Swedish politics with 20% of poll

The far right appears close to causing an earthquake in Swedish politics, the Sweden Democrats becoming the country’s second-largest party while the wider rightwing bloc that it leads edged towards a slim victory over the incumbent centre-left.

Exit polls on Sunday night at first suggested a narrow victory for the Social Democrats and their centre-left allies. But as the votes were counted the tally swung towards the right. With more than 90% of the vote counted, the right bloc of four parties had a share of the vote corresponding to 176 of 349 seats in parliament, with the left bloc trailing on 173.

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