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Thursday, September 11, 2025

Tag: Populists
October 25, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Politics
World

European Populist Elected President in Omen of Impending Trump Victory?

A populist has been elected as Parliament President in Austria for the first time ever following national elections in September. Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe) lawmaker Walter Rosenkranz won the votes of 100 of the 183 deputies in the assembly. Only the Greens unanimously opposed him, while other parties allowed their members to vote freely.

The position is the second-highest office of state after the Federal President and is traditionally awarded to the party that comes first in national elections. The FPOe won in September, beating the notionally center-right Austrian People’s Party (OeVP) into second place.

However, leftist Federal President Alexander van der Bellen has not given the FPOe and its leader, Herbert Kickl, a chance to attempt to form a government despite their victory. Instead, current Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the OeVP, who regards the vaccine skeptic Kickl as a “conspiracy theorist,” has been tasked with trying to form a new government.

ESTABLISHMENT COLLUSION.

Kickl commented on the situation on Facebook, saying to voters, “This may seem like a slap in the face for many of you. But I promise you, the final word hasn’t been spoken yet.” The FPOe and Kickl ran on one of the most anti-mass migration platforms in Europe, with Kickl openly supporting a policy of remigration.

The situation in Austria is part of a broader trend in Europe in which populist parties have won the largest number of votes but have been shut out of governing as no establishment parties will work with them. RINO-like center-right parties like the OeVP generally prefer to form coalitions with green and socialist parties.

In France, for instance, despite Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) being the largest single party in the National Assembly, far-left and globalist parties worked together to deny populists key positions in the legislature.

Image via Flickr.

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A populist has been elected as Parliament President in Austria for the first time ever following national elections in September. Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe) lawmaker Walter Rosenkranz won the votes of 100 of the 183 deputies in the assembly. Only the Greens unanimously opposed him, while other parties allowed their members to vote freely. show more
October 11, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Politics
World

France’s Marion Marechal Forms New Party to ‘Strengthen’ the Right.

One of France’s most well-known populist-conservative politicians has formed a new party to strengthen and expand the populist-conservative right and create a national coalition. Marion Marechal, niece of populist National Assembly member and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, announced the formation of Identité Libertés (Identity Freedom) this week after she and several others won seats in the European Parliament earlier this year.

Marechal and several others were expelled from French conservative writer Eric Zemmour‘s Reconquest Party, which she stood for during the European elections, for proposing an alliance with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) during the subsequent snap national elections.

According to Marechal, the new party will stand against mass migration, Islamisation, and woke ideology in universities and schools. Noting the unstable situation in the French parliament, she argues that another snap election is likely and an early presidential election is even possible, calling for the right to unite under a broad coalition.

Marechal states that Marine Le Pen should lead any such coalition. Other conservatives, including Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) leader Eric Ciotti, have also endorsed the idea.

“I am in favor of a right-wing policy, so all those who can contribute to this alliance naturally will be welcome,” said Ciotti, who until recently led the center-right Republicans.

Since the French legislative elections in July, President Emmanuel Macron has struggled to find a Prime Minister who a majority in parliament will support, as no single party or bloc of parties has a majority of seats.

His choice, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, is expected to release a budget on Thursday, October 10. If not supported by Le Pen, Barnier’s time as Prime Minister could be over quickly, setting the stage for another snap election.

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One of France's most well-known populist-conservative politicians has formed a new party to strengthen and expand the populist-conservative right and create a national coalition. Marion Marechal, niece of populist National Assembly member and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, announced the formation of Identité Libertés (Identity Freedom) this week after she and several others won seats in the European Parliament earlier this year. show more
October 10, 2024
William Upton
Election 2024

Kamala Leans on John Fetterman to Bring in Blue-Collar Voters.

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) is emerging as a key campaign surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris in the closing days of the 2024 presidential election. She hopes to head off President Donald J. Trump’s surging support among blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania, and her campaign believes deploying Fetterman to rally voters in rural Pennsylvania counties will push the Democratic Vice President’s margins higher than President Joe Biden’s during the 2020 election.

Trump’s strong showing in the critical swing state looms large in the mind of the Harris campaign. Despite losing Pennsylvania to Biden in 2020, Trump saw a significant increase in his margins in the state’s more rural counties compared to his 2016 numbers. In rural Somerset County—about an hour outside Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania—Trump carried the vote by 55 points in 2016. He defeated Biden by an even greater margin in the county during the 2020 election.

Hoping to narrow the margin in places like Somerset, the Harris campaign has dispatched Fetterman, the state’s junior Democratic Senator who has sometimes bucked the national party and has populist appeal. Over the final weeks before Election Day, Fetterman will host over a half dozen events across rural Pennsylvania, with an appeal to union voters and legacy Democrats being the primary focus.

Data released by the Teamsters Union in September suggests Trump is winning union households by a two-to-one margin over Harris. The labor union, with over one million members, has declined to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in 28 years.

Image by Gov. Tom Wolf.

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Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) is emerging as a key campaign surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris in the closing days of the 2024 presidential election. She hopes to head off President Donald J. Trump's surging support among blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania, and her campaign believes deploying Fetterman to rally voters in rural Pennsylvania counties will push the Democratic Vice President's margins higher than President Joe Biden's during the 2020 election. show more
October 2, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Lawfare
Politics
World

German Globalists Seek BAN on Election-Winning Populist Party.

Members of several parties in the German parliament are set to introduce a motion to begin the process of banning the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is currently seeing success after success in regional elections. More than the 37 German lawmakers required to introduce the motion support it, including members of the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and their Green coalition partners, the Left Party, and the notionally center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) formerly led by Angela Merkel.

The parliament cannot outright ban political parties by itself, so the motion calls on the German Constitutional Court to begin proceedings to ban the AfD. It also argues that the AfD should be cut off from all public party financing.

However, not all lawmakers support the motion. SPD politician Gesine Schwan warns the ban process could be “politically counterproductive” and actually increase public support for the AfD.

Sahra Wagenknecht, whose left-populist BSW party has also seen recent election success, called the move “the stupidest application of the year.” While economically left-wing, Wagenknecht shares some of the same concerns about mass migration as the AfD and is seen as socially conservative on many issues.

German politicians have been talking about banning the AfD for at least a year, with CDU lawmaker Marco Wanderwitz drafting legislation last October. Since then, the AfD has come second in state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg and finished first in Thuringia. Support among the German youth is surging for the party, with some polls showing it to be the most popular among young voters.

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Members of several parties in the German parliament are set to introduce a motion to begin the process of banning the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is currently seeing success after success in regional elections. More than the 37 German lawmakers required to introduce the motion support it, including members of the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and their Green coalition partners, the Left Party, and the notionally center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) formerly led by Angela Merkel. show more
September 30, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Immigration
Politics
World

Populists Win Historic Victory Driven by Youth Vote.

Austria’s populist Freedom Party (FPOe) achieved its largest election success in the party’s history on Sunday, September 29, as young voters flocked to support the anti-mass migration party and its “remigration” policies. The FPOe won 29.2 percent of the national vote, beating their previous record of 26.9 percent back in 1999 when the party entered a coalition government as the junior partner of the center-right Austrian People’s Party (OeVP).

Herbert Kickl, leader of the FPOe and an ally of Hungary’s Viktor Orban in the European Union (EU), ran on an anti-mass migration platform and endorsed the concept of “remigration,” which could see large-scale deportations of illegal aliens and possibly incentives for migrants to return to their home countries.

“These invaders want to harm us, endanger our security and our prosperity,” Kickl said during the election campaign, calling for “Fortress Austria.”

The FPOe has become very popular among young voters, attaining first place among those under the age of 34 and winning 37 percent of the vote among those aged 35 to 59.

Despite winning the election, Kickl and his party will have to form a coalition government with another party for a majority in the Austrian parliament. Unlike Germany‘s Alternative for Germany (AfD) and France’s National Rally (RN), there is no so-called cordon sanitaire against the Austrian populists, with all other parties colluding to shut them out of office. This means there is a realistic prospect the FPOe could form a government with the center-right OeVP.

The OeVP last formed a coalition with the FPOe in 2017, which lasted until 2019. However, the OeVP was the senior partner in that coalition, and it is unclear whether it would accept a junior role with Kickl rather than an OeVP politician becoming Chancellor.

The Social Democrats, Greens, and liberal NEOS group have all ruled out working with the FPOe.

Image by C.Stadler/Bwag.

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Austria's populist Freedom Party (FPOe) achieved its largest election success in the party's history on Sunday, September 29, as young voters flocked to support the anti-mass migration party and its "remigration" policies. The FPOe won 29.2 percent of the national vote, beating their previous record of 26.9 percent back in 1999 when the party entered a coalition government as the junior partner of the center-right Austrian People's Party (OeVP). show more
meloni
September 24, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Immigration
World

Italy’s Meloni Has Drastically Reduced Illegal Migration… But There’s a Catch.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is boasting of reducing illegal immigration by as much as 64 percent. However, her government is glossing over the fact illegal immigration massively increased during her first year in office and that fellow populist Matteo Salvini reduced arrivals much more drastically as part of a previous government.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani boasted of reducing illegal arrivals over the weekend, stating, but added, “We are not against legal immigration, rather against illegal immigration.”

Meloni took power as part of a right-wing coalition government in October 2022, with her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party at the forefront and Tajani’s center-right Forza Italia and Salvini’s League (Lega) in junior positions. According to statistics from the United Nations, there were 105,131 illegal arrivals to Italy by sea in 2022, with the influx increasing to 157,651 in 2023, Meloni’s first full year in office.

SALVINI.

While the 64 percent decrease is significant, it is nowhere near as large as the decrease achieved by Salvini as Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister—roughly equivalent to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary—in a coalition with the left-populist Five Star Movement (M5S).

When Salvini took over the Interior Ministry in June of 2018, the number of migrant arrivals for the prior year stood at 119,369. By the end of the year, they had fallen to 23,370, and in 2019, they stood at just 11,471. To put this in perspective, there were more illegal arrivals under Meloni in August 2023 than in all of 2018 or 2019.

The “Salvini Method” was also credited with significantly lower migrant deaths at sea, with 754 reported either dead or missing in 2019 compared to 1,908 in 2023.

Salvini’s role in Meloni’s government is more junior than in the M5S-Lega government, and she has kept him out of the Interior Ministry portfolio.

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Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is boasting of reducing illegal immigration by as much as 64 percent. However, her government is glossing over the fact illegal immigration massively increased during her first year in office and that fellow populist Matteo Salvini reduced arrivals much more drastically as part of a previous government. show more
wilders
September 9, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Crime
NatSec
World

Pakistani Men Convicted For Urging Assassinating of Populist Firebrand.

Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, who styles himself the “Emir of Pakistan’s Largest Religio-Political Organization,” the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) party, and Muhammed Ashraf Asif Jalali, an imam linked to the TLP, have been convicted of inciting Muslims to murder Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders. Rizvi and Jalali, tried in absentia in the Netherlands, received four-year and 14-year sentences, respectively.

Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) is the largest in the Netherlands and incorporated into its new anti-mass migration government, was put under an Islamic fatwa by Jalali in 2018. This was sparked by Wilders’, a longtime critic of Islam, organizing a ‘Draw Mohammed’ contest, which had to be abandoned due to jihadist threats. Rizvi called for Wilders’s assassination at a press conference the same year.

Wilders wrote prior to the convictions that he has been “forced to live in various safe houses” since 2004 due to Islamists like Rizvi and Jalali. Theo Van Gogh, another Dutch Islam critic, was murdered in the streets of Amsterdam the same year by a jihadist who pinned a death threat against Ayaan Hirsi Ali to his body with a dagger. Ali, a Somalia-born Islam critic, has since fled Europe for the U.S.

Pakistan does not have an extradition treaty with the Netherlands, so Rizvi and Jalali are unlikely to be transported to the Netherlands, but the convictions may limit their travel overseas.

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Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, who styles himself the "Emir of Pakistan's Largest Religio-Political Organization," the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) party, and Muhammed Ashraf Asif Jalali, an imam linked to the TLP, have been convicted of inciting Muslims to murder Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders. Rizvi and Jalali, tried in absentia in the Netherlands, received four-year and 14-year sentences, respectively. show more
September 4, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Politics
World

French Conservative Leader Proposes Big Tent Right-Wing Party, Including Populists, as France Remains Without a Government.

French conservative leader Eric Ciotti is proposing a new right-wing party, including Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally (RN), inspired by General Charles de Gaulle. Ciotti is a leader of the center-right Les Republicains (Republicans), who, unlike others in the often RINO-like party, is open to allying with Marine Le Pen and the RN, admits the Republican brand is “outdated” and “discredited by its defeats.”

The French conservative is calling for a new party, the Union of the Right for the Republic or “UDR”—a nod to the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR) created by General Charles de Gaulle in 1967. The original UDR  of de Gaulle opposed the far-left May 1968 movement, which nearly brought France to civil war through strike action and political violence.

Anti-populist members of the Republicans (LR) have attempted to remove Ciotti from the party leadership several times over his electoral alliance with Le Pen ahead of France’s recent snap election. They have failed so far, and await a court decision on ousting him on October 14.

TWO MONTHS & NO GOVERNMENT.

The Union of the Right proposal comes amid an ongoing political crisis. Nearly two months after legislative elections produced no clear winner, a government has yet to be formed.

While Le Pen‘s National Rally won the popular vote and the most seats of any single party, it is unable to form a majority in the legislature and has been excluded from key positions by blocs aligned with President Emmanuel Macron and the far left.

The New Popular Front (NFP) alliance of far-left parties has the most seats overall, but Macron has is refusing to accept the prime ministerial candidate they are putting forward. Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the NFP’s largest faction, France Unbowed, has proposed impeaching the French president over this refusal.

However, other members of the NFP, which the legislature’s second-placed bloc of globalist-progressive ‘Macronists’ are attempting to ally with, have distanced themselves from Melenchon’s proposal.

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French conservative leader Eric Ciotti is proposing a new right-wing party, including Marine Le Pen's populist National Rally (RN), inspired by General Charles de Gaulle. Ciotti is a leader of the center-right Les Republicains (Republicans), who, unlike others in the often RINO-like party, is open to allying with Marine Le Pen and the RN, admits the Republican brand is "outdated" and "discredited by its defeats." show more
September 2, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Immigration
News
World

Earthquake: Anti-Mass Migration Populists Win Big in European State Elections.

The right-populist, anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has won state elections in Thuringia and near-tied the establishment Christian Democratic Union (CDU), formerly led by Angela Merkel, in Saxony. The AfD has won an enormous share of the youth and working-class votes, in particular.

Led by Björn Höcke, the AfD in Thuringia is projected to have won over 33 percent of the vote on Sunday, up around 10 points on their previous showing in 2019. The CDU looks to be far behind, at around 25 percent. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a new, left-populist party that opposes mass migration, is third, at around 15 percent.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD) is at around 6 percent. His party’s coalition partners, the far-left Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), have a statistically zero percent share of the vote.

In Saxony, the AfD appears to have secured a near-tie with the CDU, with both coming in around 40 percent. The SPD seems to have secured around 7 percent—its worst-ever result in Saxony. The Greens and FDP have also fared poorly, with the latter dropping to under one percent—their worst-ever result in any state election.

IMPLICATIONS.

While the AfD and the notionally right-wing CDU would enjoy legislative supermajorities in a coalition, the latter has refused to work with the former under any circumstances. Despite Merkel declaring multiculturalism had “utterly failed” in 2010, she opened the borders during the 2015-16 migrant crisis, with the SPD and its partners displacing her party after four terms in office in 2021.

However, the SPD has experienced a rapid collapse in support due to migrant crime worsening under their stewardship, and the Russia sanctions war and net zero policies driving up costs.

It will be difficult for the CDU to form governments without the AfD, given the level of support the populists achieved, and the unpopularity of attempting to form a “grand coalition” with the SPD and other left-leaning parties.

Germany’s establishment right, left, and far left also face long-term challenges, with the AfD winning a large plurality of the working-class vote in Thuringia and Saxony, and performing very strongly among younger voters. There are signs Germany’s youth are increasingly unhappy with mass migration and multiculturalism, with the viral song “Foreigners Out” spreading over the summer.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron faces a similar situation. The success of Marine Le Pen‘s populist National Rally (RN) in the recent European and national elections has left his faction in the legislature unable to form a government without the help of various far-left parties.

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The right-populist, anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has won state elections in Thuringia and near-tied the establishment Christian Democratic Union (CDU), formerly led by Angela Merkel, in Saxony. The AfD has won an enormous share of the youth and working-class votes, in particular. show more
August 28, 2024
William Upton
Election 2024
Health

MUST READ: ‘Crunchy-Ish’ – The Return of the Trump-Bernie Voter.

Crossover voters from then-Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders to Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential election likely helped push the latter over the top in critical swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. With Bernie-aligned figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and anti-war populist Tulsi Gabbard backing Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House, a similar phenomenon could happen again, argues The National Pulse’s Editor-in-Chief, Raheem Kassam, in a recent interview with Wake Up To Politics.

The Kennedy–Gabbard voter demographic is a sort of evolution of the 2016 Bernie Sanders voter, Kassam notes. While they still oppose war and are skeptical of concentrated corporate and government power, they’re also keen on lifestyle choices that impact nutrition and physical health.

“These are people who think about what their clothes are made of,” Kassam says, adding: “They don’t want to wear polyester. They don’t want to eat seed oils. They prefer all-natural, no sulfites in their wines.”

A LIFESTYLE ISSUE.

According to Kassam, this lifestyle issue is the missing piece that may be critical to increasing that 2016 crossover vote and securing Republican wins once again in the Rustbelt as well as Arizona and Nevada—the latter two states being known for having a ‘crunchy’ streak in their electorates.

“Probably more than any other point in his life, Trump is on a learning trajectory right now,” The National Pulse’s Editor-in-Chief explains before continuing: “I think he probably looked at it originally from, like, ‘Okay, I’m for no war. Are you for no war?’ And they go, ‘yeah, we’re for no war.’ ‘Okay, so what else are you into?’ And they start talking about all this health stuff and everything else and he goes, ‘Oh my God, I had no idea.’”

VOTER SWAP?

Wake Up To Politics’s Gabe Fleisher notes that Trump has also appeared on several top podcasts whose audiences tend toward supporters of Sanders, Kennedy, and Gabbard. Most recently, Trump spoke at length with Theo Von on a myriad of topics, including the addiction crisis and his late brother Fred Trump’s struggles with alcoholism.

Perhaps most critically, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party appear to have little to offer this voter demographic heading into November. Instead, Democrats are offering an olive branch to the pro-war neoconservatives who found themselves in the political wilderness following the disastrous Iraq War and the 2016 election.

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Crossover voters from then-Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders to Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential election likely helped push the latter over the top in critical swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. With Bernie-aligned figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and anti-war populist Tulsi Gabbard backing Trump's 2024 bid for the White House, a similar phenomenon could happen again, argues The National Pulse's Editor-in-Chief, Raheem Kassam, in a recent interview with Wake Up To Politics. show more