[Salon] Europe's far right in Trump's shadow

Quote from article at Botton: "Was this the establishment of the "reactionary international":

I'm not expressing any criticism of this mind you, but writing only as a "historian of political theory," in the manner of Hannah Arendt that I was educated in. But I pointed out years ago that what we were seeing come together under the banner of National Conservatism, and/or New Right or Post-Liberal, with illustrious leaders such as these: https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-dc-2019/, https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-2-2021/presenters/jd-vance/,

and here: https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-4-2024/presenters/yoram-hazony/, 

was the achievement of a "Universal Fascism." That was once dreamed of by Italian fascists in the 1930s and other European right-wing nationalists, as explained in part in the attached file, and seen today as National Conservatism. With this email list so supportive of that, that I was denounced anytime I criticized it, and them, and/or its slightly older ideological sibling, what is now deemed "Traditional Conservatism" of the Thought Control Conservatives Buckley, Burnham, and Willmoore Kendall. So I no longer do with those political ideas having "won." With the latter as "political theorist" preceding and identical to Yoram Hazony today, as I've offered ample proof of.  

In the campaign mosaic of winning an election, there is virtually no one on this email list who can complain of what is going on today without being a hypocrite, with this a disproportionately Republican/Conservative email list with long-time ties to, and high praise from, the Heritage Foundation for a one-time member of the list and one the leading supporters of the administration: 
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/07/politics/donald-trump-clayland-gray-dinner/index.html
https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/ethanol-lobbyist-gave-trump-agenda-250k-in-dark-money/
https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-vice-president-mourns-the-passing-c-boyden-gray
BLUF: "In the former role, he was instrumental in promoting the careers of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Gray also played a prominent role in defending Justice Thomas against scurrilous charges during his contentious confirmation hearing.  

"Boyden was also a longtime member of the Board of Directors of the Federalist Society, . . . "

That's not meant to criticize anyone but to point out this List's influence for where we're at today, to celebrate it, I guess.

We've had a ring-side seat on this email list since 2015 with events and ideologues promoting the ideology we're under today, but with a link as well to the past that led up to today with so many Traditional Conservatives here going back to or propagating ideas of the "Founding Era" of the Thought Control Conservatives, and so many Right-revisionists "sanitizing" their lurid, anti-Constitutional past, culminating in the present. With policies like this: 
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/10/trump-says-palestinians-would-not-have-right-to-return-to-gaza-under-us-ownership-plan_6738001_4.html
"President Donald Trump said Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for US "ownership" of the war-torn territory, contradicting other officials in his administration who have sought to argue Trump was only calling for the temporary relocation of its population."

And ideological alliances like these: 
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/02/09/in-madrid-europe-s-far-right-looks-to-trump-as-a-role-model_6737955_4.html
"On the essentials, we're all in agreement: the Christian values of family and freedom, national sovereignty . . . "

Or as Marine Le Pen would put it, from Wikipedia, with citations, "Travail, Famille, Patrie"
"In the Revue des deux Mondes (Two Worlds Magazine) of 15 September 1940, Marshal Pétain wrote this repudiation of the motto of the French Republic. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité : When our young people […] approach adult life, we shall say to them […] that real liberty cannot be exercised except under the shelter of a guiding authority, which they must respect, which they must obey […]. We shall then tell them that equality [should] set itself within the framework of a hierarchy, founded on the diversity of office and merits. […] Finally, we shall tell them that there is no way of having true brotherhood except within those natural groups, the family, the town, the fatherland.[1]"


Attachment: Universal Fascism (Excerpt).pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

   
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/02/10/europe-s-far-right-in-trump-s-shadow_6737990_23.html

Europe's far right in Trump's shadow

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had, during his country's term holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, in the second half of 2024, proclaimed the slogan MEGA, "Make Europe Great Again," as a challenge to the Europe he abhors. The thunderous return to the White House of Donald Trump, father of the slogan MAGA, "Make America Great Again," and guiding light for the European far right, has meant that the summit held by the Patriots for Europe group, the third largest group in the European Parliament, on Saturday, February 8, in Madrid, had to adopt MEGA as its own rallying cry.

Was this the establishment of the "reactionary international" denounced by President Emmanuel Macron? Is a European offshoot of Trumpism emerging? The triumphalist atmosphere of the public gathering, hosted by the Spanish far-right party Vox, was undoubtedly due to the powerful gust of reactionary impetus blowing in from across the Atlantic. The libertarian crusade waged by Argentine President Javier Milei, who sent a video message expressing his support for his European brothers-in-arms, as well as Hurricane Trump, both gave the European national-populist leaders present the feeling that the time for "reconquista" – a term used by several speakers – had come to Europe.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, preferred the term "renaissance" to "reconquest," no doubt for French political reasons – her rival Eric Zemmour named his party "Reconquête." She saw the "challenge of power" represented by Trump's victory as "an exhortation to exist in the world to come, in the history that is being written."

Discordant notes

Like other speakers, however, Le Pen did not manage to escape the contradictions that were present in many of the far-right leaders' speeches. There were, of course, some points that united them, from Orban to Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian Lega party, from Dutch politician Geert Wilders to the Czech Republic's Andrej Babis: The rejection of immigration and anti-Islamic rhetoric, opposition to environmental standards and the European Green Deal, the fight against "woke-ism" and multiculturalism.

Yet there were also discordant notes, as well as points that some preferred to stay silent on. Orban attacked Europe's spending to support Ukraine in "a hopeless war," a subject the others carefully avoided. Santiago Abascal, the head of Vox, expressed his support for Alice Weidel, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party's candidate for chancellor, but he was not followed in this by his European friends, who have considered the AfD in the European Parliament to be toxic. No mention was made of President Trump's intention to impose tariffs on Europe, nor his proposal to expel two million Palestinians from Gaza, nor his demand for European countries to double their defense spending, nor even the digital oligarchy's stranglehold on the US federal state. Le Pen, for her part, avoided speaking of his liberal economic vision, which is very different from the RN's platform.

At a time when certain center-right politicians, such as the leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, have taken the risk of making controversial moves for rapprochement with the far right, the "MEGA summit" has shed light on its leaders' ambiguities: By placing themselves in Trump's light, they have also shined a spotlight on the unease provoked by their association with the most radical MAGA policies.

Le Monde

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

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