Originally published by the International Federation of Resistance Fighters – https://fir.at/en/
A core theme of the extreme right is exaggerated nationalism – “Our country first” is the popular propaganda formula. However, this does not prevent them from forming alliances with like-minded forces across national borders. The networking of the extreme right-wing parties, which now have three political groups (and therefore the corresponding funds and other resources) in the European Parliament, became apparent after the European Parliament elections. The fact that there is no joint parliamentary group shows that the respective nationalism and (sometimes) political differences override their cooperation, but their influence on the decision-making of the Parliament and the Commission remains high.
In addition to the networking of European parties, there are other forms of cooperation that extend far beyond Europe. One of the “string-pullers” is Steve Bannon. His attempt to unite the extreme right in Europe with “The Movement” failed. The establishment of an ideology center in Italy was also halted in 2021, but other extreme right-wing actors are also working on this idea, such as the representative of the American “alt-right” movement Richard Spencer with his National Policy Institute. They are all concerned with bringing together nationalist, reactionary and anti-democratic parties in different parts of the world in order to stop emancipatory movements. As these tendencies are currently clearly evident in Latin America, the extreme right is increasingly focusing in this direction.
Last week, the “Madrid Forum” met in Buenos Aires, hosted and led by the “Disenso Foundation” of the Spanish fascist party Vox. This forum was founded in 2020 and has already held two meetings in Latin America, namely in Bogota and Lima, where the aim was to form a “counterweight” to the Sao Paolo Forum. The central themes were the “fight against the left” and “the enemies of the West”, which was understood to mean all those who question the political hegemony of the USA and the European Union.
The aim of this meeting was to create unity between the Spanish and Hispanic-American right with a common strategy against the “declared enemies” of socialism, communism, feminism, migration, et. al., as one Spanish activist explained. Supporters from conservative Chile, exiles from Venezuela, supporters of former Brazilian President Bolsonaro and other Latin American countries had indeed come to Buenos Aires. A supposedly common culture of the “Iberosphere” is claimed as the ideological bond of cooperation. It is significant that this right-wing network has its ideological point of reference in Spanish colonialism. As a Spanish and European party, Vox leads the Latin American far right in a colonialist manner. It also links this network with contacts to the European and North American extreme right.
The star of the conference was undoubtedly Argentinian President Javier Milei, who gave one of the keynote speeches. According to media reports, he presented himself as the future “messiah” who would “liberate the continent from all leftists”. One report said, that he gave the ultra-right movement a kind of aesthetic element – with his flaunted irreverence and his role as a television personality. He makes noise. He knows how to reach people. In a society of spectacle, that alone makes him a relevant figure.”
Despite the spectacle, the public response to this meeting fell short of the organizers’ expectations. It was noticeable that most of the seats in the auditorium of the Kirchner Cultural Center, where the conference took place, remained unoccupied. Apparently, the Argentine public’s support for Milei and his policies is no longer strong.
Nevertheless, this networking of the extreme right is a political uncertainty factor, as the meeting formulated in the final declaration. In the foreign policy section, the following were branded as “enemies of the West”: Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, China and Iran. The “Madrid Forum” thus follows the US foreign policy agenda. It is aware that a right-wing political development in Latin America will only be possible with the support of the US government, but hopes in particular that Donald Trump will win the US presidential elections in November.