Piensa para reformar la Justicia en alguien que fue investigado por sexo con menores y tráfico de personas y al que el Congreso le ha abierto un expediente por conducta sexual inapropiada, consumo de drogas o uso inapropiado de fondos de su campaña Leer

Boyko Borissov, leader of the election-winning GERB (EPP) party, has opened negotiations with the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the populists of There is Such a People (ITN) over a possible Bulgarian government. GERB won early parliamentary elections in October in one of the EU's…

Juan Luis González, periodista, habló en Caracol Radio e indicó que es probable que el candidato a la presidencia de Argentina tenga problemas de salud mental.

The right-wing populist party Motorists for Themselves, part of the Patriots for Europe group, has made significant gains, according to new polling data published by the Median agency. According to a poll conducted for the Czech News Agency, the Motorists could win 6% of the vote in the upcoming…

Culture notes: Populists of the world unite The World Today rsoppelsa.drupal 25 May 2022

America’s hard-right has successfully played a long game at home, and now it’s schmoozing Europe. We should be worried, says Catherine Fieschi

The politics of advanced democracies is a rather Janus-faced affair these days. No sooner have we breathed a sigh of relief at the results of the French presidential election than a leaked United States Supreme Court document on Roe v Wade signals American abortion rights are under threat. 

Yes, Europe seems to be maintaining political unity in its support of Ukraine, and the US is lavishing eye-watering sums on it both in military and humanitarian aid. Yet one cannot help but feel that these might be short-lived spells of relief in the face of mounting storm clouds on the political horizon. Both at the domestic and international level, populist politics looks to be gathering pace still. 

On the domestic front, we should be cautious in our relief. In the French elections Emmanuel Macron was indeed re-elected, and comfortably so, but there is no denying the space occupied by populist politicians on the left and the right. In the first round, Marine Le Pen gained 23 per cent of the vote, left populist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon 22 per cent, and far-right candidate Éric Zemmour 7 per cent. Add to this a record low turnout, and the picture is one of a system in which mainstream politics has overall been rejected in favour of various populist options. 

The Hungarians weren’t so lucky, and Viktor Orbán’s capture of the media and quashing of the opposition over his years in power delivered solid victory. 

What should be cause for further concern is what is happening in the United States, as well as its potential impact on European politics. A quick flick through American politics today suggests dysfunctionalities of staggering magnitude and depth, and the full extent of the success of the right-wing Republican project, as confirmed by the intention to reverse Roe v Wade. 

Any reversal of Roe v Wade is a further step towards a drastic re-territorialization of American politics: into red states and blue states, into urban v rural, into places where taxes fund public education and public goods and where they won’t. It is also about a re-territorialization of institutional power away from the federal and into state institutions. 

The words of JD Vance, the Ohio Republican senatorial candidate – author of the rather good memoir Hillbilly Elegy – pander to an ‘American heartlands’ view of the United States’ role in the world. Asked about the fate of Ukraine, Vance simply replied that he ‘didn’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another’. 

On an even more basic level, we would do well to keep in mind that there were 440 anti-voter bills in 49 states at the end of 2021 and rising, calling into question citizens’ basic rights to vote. Republicans have pursued this agenda relentlessly. They have played a long game and invested in media, education and minor and not so minor projects – all of which have secured them a social and political base that is well-disposed towards the deep reversal of the American liberal global project and that of its allies across the world.

And it is perhaps on this last point that we should be most alarmed. Between May 18-20, the Conservative Political Action Conference, an American conclave of the right, was held in Europe. Viktor Orbán gave the keynote speech, and other speakers included the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, and the president of Spain’s far-right party Vox, Santiago Abascal, as well as some well-known American Trumpian voices, including Trump himself. Marine Le Pen, whose earlier appearance at the conference had met with rapturous applause, chose not to cosy-up too closely to Orbán in the run-up to the French parliamentary elections in June but she sent her deputy. 

The export of the Fox News-driven conference from across the Atlantic is deeply worrying. Up until now populists have failed in their attempts at international alliances. At the European Union level their nationalism has always been in the way of their working together, and their groups tend to be short-lived or ineffective as a result. As for American attempts in Europe, the one led by Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser, in 2020 that aimed to create an Academy for the Judeo-Christian West ended as a damp squib – possibly not helped by his dismissal from the White House amid charges of defrauding donors.

But something may be changing: the conference’s embrace of Orbán and an international smattering of ‘strongmen’ hailing from the hard-right, aligned with Putin and sup-ported by Trump and a media empire, suggests that we are entering a Trumpian-infused second act that in its triumphal revanchism is seeking to create an international right-wing populist, or even authoritarian front. This is about politics, media, but also money – something European populist parties have been short of. As Marine Le Pen explained to French voters, her party is so poor it had to borrow money from a Russian bank.  

As some have pointed out, the Russian aggression against Ukraine has complicated matters when it comes to Russian funding of disinformation to the West. Many routes have been shut down. But a new route between the US and Hungary as a platform to floss Europe with dirty money is a good replacement to the old Russian route. 
 

The Maharashtra government rolled out the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana in August 2024 and is counting on it to gather votes from women. Ever since the scheme was introduced and beneficiaries began thronging banks, there have been several attacks on public sector bank employees. Vinaya Deshpande Pandit reports on a scheme that has caused law and order problems and created fear among employees

Video and transcript of Farron Cousins' discussion of Hillary Clinton's fake populism on Ring of Fire TV, May 18, 2015. Continue reading →

As long-simmering passions related to federal immigration policies have come to a full boil, less noted but no less important debates are taking place at state and local levels with regards to policies affecting immigrants and their children. As states are increasingly diverging in their responses, this report examines how some of the key policies and programs that support long-term integration success are faring in this volatile era.

Italy’s Five Star Movement used to rave about towns like Montieri, a village in the verdant Tuscan foothills that burns little coal or natural gas. Instead, the local power plant harnesses steam rising naturally from hot springs deep underground to generate electricity.

Last summer, as Donald Trump was pledging to Make America Great Again through tariffs and a “great wall” along the United States’ southern border, the Leave campaign in the United Kingdom urged Brits to “take back control” of their country by exiting the European Union. Although many urban voters in both countries rejected these ideas,…

Rather than Italy leaving the euro, it’s now that the euros are leaving Italy. In the recent weeks, after doubts emerged about the government’s will to remain in the European monetary union, Italians have transferred dozens of billions of euros across the borders.  Only a few days after the formation of the new government, the financial situation almost slid out of control. Italy’s liabilities with the euro-area (as tracked by…

According to the current projections, after the European Parliament elections this weekend Italy might find itself excluded from Europe’s decisionmaking. A sense of marginalization and distance from the EU might grow in Italy’s public opinion, with hard-to-fathom political consequences. Both parties forming the current government coalition—the League and the Five Star Movement (M5S)—are likely to…

Italy has a certain experience in changes of government, having seen 68 different governments in 73 years. However, even by Italian standards, what happened this summer to the first populist government in an advanced economy is unusual, to say the least. It is also instructive for other countries, showing the key roles of parliaments and…

They cry "freedom" for them to smoke, drink, drive really fast and fry the planet. Everyone else, get out of the way.

Financial markets watchdog positions as defender of Main Street investors

The Polish novelist on confronting history and her battles with the nationalist right

From Brexit to fiscal policy, the EU’s largest member states have seen the mainstream wrongfooted

Dewey Library - JK1726.G35 2018

Djani, Luky Djuniardi, author