The surge of far-right neo-fascist parties in Europe who oppose Western ideals and unity against an aggressive Russian Federation is one of the most troubling events of the Trump era. From France's Marine LePen, to Italy's Matteo Salvini, to Hungary's Victor Orban and many in between, far-right nativist leaders are using immigrants as their whipping horse, much like our own neo-fascist bigot Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump, to whom they look for inspiration.
In a ominous new development, these right-wing leaders have banded together to create a coalition called "Identity and Democracy" to push their agenda in the European Parliament:
"Drawn from nine of the EU’s 28 member countries, Identity and Democracy will hold 73 seats in the new parliament — double its predecessor — but will only control around 10% of the 751-seat assembly. The biggest center-right and -left parties lost ground in the May 23-26 polls, but allied with mainstream pro-business and pro-environment parties they still hold a comfortable majority."It's a small number now, but bears close watching. Observers are noting that the extreme nationalist agendas of each of the "Identity and Democracy" members may end up fracturing them on issues where they perceive their country is at a disadvantage. Nonetheless, the nativist, neo-fascist movement in Europe represents a threat to the NATO alliance and its democracies and a boon to Vladimir Putin's long-held goal of fracturing Western Europe and dominating it.
