European far-right groups launch unofficial campaign ahead of European Union elections

MADRID — Europe’s far-right parties privately launched a campaign for the European Union (EU) elections in Spain on Sunday, with a strong message against illegal immigration and the European Union’s climate change policies, and against Israel in its war with Hamas. declared support for.

French National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sought to rally voters at an event organized by Spain’s far-right party Vox in Madrid ahead of the June 6-9 European Union parliamentary elections. . Analysts say the results of the vote in the region’s 27 countries could show a significant rise in far-right groups.

“We are in the final stages of making June 9 a day of liberation and hope,” the French presidential candidate said. “We have three weeks left to persuade our respective compatriots to vote.”

Mr. Meloni, from Benito Mussolini’s fascist-based Italian Brotherhood party, spoke in Spanish via video conference and urged young people to vote. “You are the only possible future for Europe,” Meloni told them.

Defending the EU’s borders was another major theme at the end of the two-day conference organized by Vox at an arena on the outskirts of the Spanish capital.

“We are not against human rights, but we want strong borders in Europe…because now we have hours,” he said earlier this year, after winning Portugal’s third-largest number of seats. said Andre Ventura, leader of Chega, the winning party. He added: “We cannot continue to have mass influxes of Muslims and Muslim immigrants into Europe.”

Meloni has defended his country’s policy of reaching agreements with third countries to curb illegal immigration, while Le Pen has called for reform of the Schengen area, which allows free movement of people within most of the region’s borders. “Europe allows free movement among countries,” he said. Choose who will enter the area and who will leave it. ”

Vox chairman Santiago Abascal has called for far-right groups to unite ahead of the European elections.

“In the face of globalism, we must respond with common sense, a global alliance of patriots defending economic prosperity, security, and freedom, because we share the threat and… because it connects us to solidarity,” Abascal said.

The vote will show whether political change on the continent matches the rightward shift seen around the world, from the Netherlands to Slovakia to Argentina.

Hailed like a star amidst chants of “freedom,” Argentina’s flamboyant president, Javier Millei, devoted a long speech to bashing socialism. He said socialism is “an ideology that goes directly against human nature and inevitably leads to slavery and death.”

“There is no other possible fate,” he said. “Opening the door to socialism is inviting death,” he added.

Supporters packed into the Palacio de Vistalegre Arena to protest against the European Green Deal and cheer messages in support of agricultural workers, which have crippled several cities on the continent in recent months. They also praised all speakers’ messages of solidarity with Israel in the Gaza war following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Israel was represented by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Tsikri.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also spoke from video screens.

During the event, hundreds of left-wing activists demonstrated against fascism in Madrid’s city center.

“I came here because in Vistalegre there is a peak of hatred and we have to fight against the fascists,” said Frank Elbroder, a Polish activist who attended the rally. “I’m worried because Hitler won because of democracy, and I think we’ll probably be in the same situation.”