First let me explain the “Freedom Caucus” in the US House of Representatives…..
The caucus is positioned right-wing to far-right on the political spectrum. The group takes hardline conservative positions and favors social conservatism and small government, along with right-wing populist beliefs such as opposition to immigration reform. The group sought dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act Established as a more conservative alternative to the Republican Study Committee, the group initially emphasized fiscal conservatism and concerns about House rules, favoring budget cuts and a decentralization of power within the House of Representatives.
(wikipedia)
It appears that the parliament of the European Union has its own version of this far Right clusterf*ck…..headed by Hungary’s Orban…..and it is expanding….
The Party for Freedom (PVV), a Dutch far-right nationalist party, will join a new alliance of similarly like-minded parties in the European Parliament, its leader said.
Dubbed the Patriots for Europe, the alliance was recently formed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
“We are PVV patriots, we love our nation. Strong and sovereign. Resisting illegal immigration. We defend peace and freedom. And support Ukraine. We protect our Judeo-Christian heritage. And our families,” wrote PVV leader Geert Wilders on X on Friday evening.
“We want to combine forces in the EP and will proudly join Patriots For Europe!”
Wilders’ party won the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands last November. The PVV is the largest party in the new four-way right-wing coalition that was sworn in on Tuesday. Dick Schoof, the former head of the Dutch intelligence service, leads it as prime minister.
In June’s elections for the European Parliament, the PVV won six seats.
Orbán’s Fidesz party, Austria’s far-right Freedom Party and the populist Czech ANO party were the first members the Patriots for Europe alliance when it was announced late last month.
Spain’s far-right Vox and the Portuguese far-right party Chega also recently said they would join.
With Wilders’ announcement, the new group would have MEPs from six countries – membership of MEPs from at least seven countries is required for group status in the European Parliament.
So far, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has declined to join.
(nordot.app)
This is just a way for the far Right to throw a wrench into the workings of the EU.
The Freedom Caucus has about 41 members on the House (numbers are keep secret for some reason)….will these members align themselves with this up-start in the EU?
Will these people be as obstructive as the House version?
All this is scary….the rise of the Far Right cannot be good for any country.
On an upside I see the elections in France has stomped on the LePen and her group….
France’s populist, anti-immigration party appears to have been unable to repeat its success in the first round of the legislative election, with the first projections after polls closed Sunday showing left-wing and centrist parties blocking the National Rally from taking power. The final results of the runoff may vary, and could leave France in gridlock, with no party winning a majority, the Washington Post reports. Weeks of negotiations would be the next step. Just after the first projections were released, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the far-left France Unbowed called for centrist President Emmanuel Macron to invite the bloc to form a government. Macron’s office said those decisions will wait a bit.
Voters seem to have responded to calls to prevent France from having its first far-right government since World War II. That would mean Macron’s gamble in calling the election paid off, though not enough to keep him in office. “As his minority government was set to lose political support while facing a rising far right, he [counterintuitively] decided to accelerate that process as the best antidote against its full realization,” said Alberto Alemanno, a professor of European Union law in Paris. “Today’s electoral results proved him right.” A government statement Sunday said Macron “will ensure that the sovereign choice of the French people is respected,” per CNN.
At least French voters are showing some good sense……maybe the American voter will follow in their shoes.
The world needs to stop this Far Right rise as soon as possible….for the sake of the planet.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
The French showed some good sense at the very last minute, but it remains to be seen whether or not they can form an effective government. Hatred of immigrants is uniting the European neo-nazis in exactly the same way that happened in the 1930s.
Best wishes, Pete.
History repeating…..again. This faction with the EU cannot be good. chuq
This anti-immigration propaganda and techniques like it are a classic technique used to prepare a population to be taken over by a dictatorship. Focus on one or two problem areas, even if you have to just make them up. Use a few scattered incidents as an excuse vilify a specific scapegoat like migrants or the Jews or LGPTQ people. Use the media to generate negative stories about those scapegoats, even flat out lying about them. Some media outlets will go along with anything, even lies, if it means they can make money off it. Take what was a relatively minor or even nonexistent problem and magnify it into an artificially created crisis that enough people become scared of so much that they are willing to give up their freedom and rights and give the dictator and his sycophants and cronies authority to “solve” the problem they created in the first place.
The GOP has been working on this for decades now. They never, ever have anything good to say about anything. Everything is, according to them, right on the brink of crisis, on the edge of utter catastrophe. They have their true believers believing that crime is running rampant, even though the crime rates have been going down for years now. They have people believing the economy is on the brink of disaster even though the US economy is the best its been in decades. Everything, according to them, is right on the edge of armageddon, and the only way it can be fixed is if you let us take over and control everything.
The GOP has nothing so lies are all they have to get their ‘message’ across to the ‘people’….this all sounds like classic Goebbels….chuq
Orbanism is just one election away from America.
But what will that do for the EU?: chuq