This Sunday, May 19, Madrid was the epicenter of the Western far right at the invitation of Santiago Abascal, the leader of VOX, the third movement in the Spanish Parliament. Very proud to be able to bring together, remotely or in person, Victor Orban, Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni, and even Javier Milei. Four days before the official kick-off of the Europeans on June 9, populism is having a meeting to paradoxically defend the idea of Europe… in its own way.
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With our correspondent in Madrid, Francois Musseau
We are the true defenders of Europe, and they are the gravediggers of Europe. This declaration by Marine Le Pen, from the podium of the Vistalegre bullring in Madrid, sought to take the opposite view of what we imagine.
We remember that in the wake of British Brexit, the extreme right in the rest of Europe defended the idea of leaving the Union. However, according to the declarations in Madrid, this has completely changed. Certainly, the Frenchwoman Marine Le Pen, the Italian Georgia Meloni and the Spaniard Santiago Abascal have denounced the European bureaucracy, denounced the left-wing ideology which would eat away at its institutions. But they demanded Europe, certainly a Europe of Nations, a Europe of Peoples, but at no time did they suggest that this European Union should disappear, or even weaken.
The fact remains that the head of the socialist government, Pedro Sánchez, whose name has been widely reviled, sees things in another light, believing that the extreme right is in reality seeking to appropriate Europe in order to better destroy it.
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The bullring in Vistalegre, a working-class district of Madrid, is packed to the brim to applaud the main leaders of the Western far right – Report