Free Republic

Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders declared his Party for Freedom was the “biggest winner” in the country’s EU Parliament elections on Thursday as exit polls predict massive gains for the anti-mass migration party. The Party for Freedom (PVV) built upon its recent domestic success on Thursday, with exit polls predicting that the populist party will secure at least seven seats in the next European Parliament after winning zero seats in the 2019 EU elections. According to the initial estimates from Ipsos on behalf of public broadcaster NOS, this marked the largest gains for any Dutch party and the largest total...

The survey shows that Greece is an exception in its views on the EU. Credit: European Parliament, CC-BY-4.0 According to a Pew Research Center survey published just ahead of European Parliament elections this week, fifty-three percent of adults in Greece hold a negative opinion of the European Union (EU). Greece ranks at the bottom among countries surveyed. The survey by the US think tank found that a median of 63 percent of adults in nine member countries have a favorable view of the bloc. Among the member countries surveyed, views of the EU are most positive in Poland and Sweden,...

The Netherlands is set to hold its European Parliament election on June 6, 2024, as part of a four-day, 27-country ballot that will return 720 MEPs to the next European parliament. The election is expected to have a significant impact on the direction of the European Union, particularly on issues such as immigration, national sovereignty, and climate action.

A court in Switzerland sentenced a writer and commentator to 60 days in jail for calling a journalist a “fat lesbian,” and the decision is being lauded by LGBTQ+ groups. On Monday, French-Swiss polemicist Alain Bonnet, who goes by Alain Soral, was sentenced by the Lausanne court for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred after he criticized Catherine Macherel, a journalist for Swiss newspapers Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures, in a Facebook video two years ago. “This court decision is an important moment for justice and rights of LGBTQI people in Switzerland,” said Murial Waeger, co-director...

Hungary has long been a thorn in the side of the EU authorities in Brussels in everything linked with the Ukraine conflict. Staunchly refusing to fan the flames of the ongoing NATO proxy conflict with Russia, Budapest has been fending off mounting pressure from its increasingly frustrated fellow EU leaders.Hungary is to be meted out a dose of “punishment” by fellow EU leaders for its staunch opposition to arming Ukraine, Politico reported. A plan is afoot to slap Budapest’s representatives with a “weak portfolio” in the next European Commission, according to diplomats cited by the outlet. Hungary’s Oliver Varhelyi has...

The European Union just passed a directive requiring ESG mandates for European businesses. ESG, of course, stands for environmental, social and governance standards. Or in the fine print — definite corporate action concerning climate change; social justice; and diversity, equity and inclusion. Basically, it’s applied Marxism without all the goofy theories — tyranny with nuance, we could call it. The EU Council approved what it called the “corporate sustainability due diligence directive” on Friday. Under the new rules, companies “will have to take measures to prevent, identify and mitigate any adverse impact on human rights or the environment,” the council...

The Belgian prosecutor says the employee played a 'significant role' in a suspected Russian propaganda operation which infiltrated the European Parliament. Brussels and French police carried out a series of simultaneous raids at European Parliament offices in Brussels and Strasbourg as well as at the home of a parliamentary staffer in the Belgian neighbourhood of Schaerbeek on Wednesday morning. Dutch EU lawmaker Marcel de Graaff confirmed on social media platform X that the staffer in question was his parliamentary assistant, Guillaume Pradoura, but distanced himself from the accusations. "I have no involvement whatsoever in any so-called Russian disinformation operation. I...

France’s globalist President Emmanuel Macron is making a state visit to Germany, the first such for 24 years, and kicked off his visit by warning against nations acting in their own interest. France and Germany, both led by globalist-left governments and both facing a damaging vote in less than two weeks as the European Parliament is re-elected continent-wide, put on a united front as Macron arrived in Berlin for the first state visit in a near-quarter century. The last French leader to make a full state visit to Germany was Jacques Chirac in 2000. The Franco-German relationship — keeping the...

<p>Baltic leaders reacted warily on Wednesday to reports that Russia could revise the borders of its territorial waters in the region.</p><p>In a draft proposal reported by some Russian media, Russia's Defence Ministry suggests updating the coordinates used to measure the strip of territorial waters off of its mainland coast and that of its islands in the Baltic Sea.</p>

Vistisen exclusively tells Euronews there is “no more political divide” between Meloni and Le Pen’s political factions than there is within other mainstream political groups. The man who has been fronting the far-right Identity and Democracy’s European elections campaign is confident that the European Parliament's two most right-wing factions will join to form a united bloc during the upcoming legislature. In an interview on Tuesday, Anders Vistisen told Euronews he believes there is no substantial political rift between his Identity and Democracy (ID) party - which harbours Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, Italy’s Lega and Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)...

As you’ve probably heard, the populist Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot five times by a crazed pro-Ukrainian, radical left-wing activist in a foiled assassination attempt. ... In today’s era of violent, pro-war leftists, advocating for peace has become dangerous—and potentially deadly. Fico was vehemently against supporting Ukraine in the dustup with Russia. The Slovakia anti-Ukraine history runs long and deep, as this 2023 article explains. Politico: Slovakia’s new leader Robert Fico made waves during the country’s recent election campaign by warning that he would not send “another bullet” to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion. His dramatic...

The drift of European countries away from the failed immigration policies of their socialist predecessors reached the Netherlands with the election of Geert Wilders as their new leader. Wilders will lead a coalition of four parties with a clear agenda of sweeping away the disastrous results of an open border that has flooded the Netherlands with a mass migration from the Middle East. That in turn has brought lawlessness from the rising migrant count leaving the silent majority exposed to behavior that they objected to with their votes. Wilders announced that his country is in an asylum crisis which requires...

The economy is experiencing a golden moment thanks to exports and tourism after cleaning up its accounts. But the country has paid a price in migration of qualified workers and reduction of public services. Ten years after the departure of the “men in black” — the international managers of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank who cleaned up Portugal’s accounts with a machete, the country has emerged as the most diligent student in southern Europe. In 2023, for the first time, public debt fell below 100% of GDP (it stood at 98.7%) and there was a...

A pentacle surrounded by a circle of fire and two figures with an ostentatiously satanic look. This is the performance at Eurovision 2024, currently being held in Sweden, by the Irish singer 'Bambie Thug', born Bambie Ray Robinson in 1993, competing with the song Doomsday Blue. And we could stop here, since the images speak for themselves. Broadcast on unified European networks, the Eurovision Song Contest is the continent's most popular music competition, now in its 68th edition and with the participation of 37 countries. In short, a sort of European Top of the Pops; and Ireland’s diabolic spectacle will...

Moscow puts subsidiaries of German and Italian firms under the control of a Gazprom division, sparking annoyance from Italy and the EU. In a move that is likely to increase tension between Russia and Western Europe, the Kremlin has unexpectedly announced the "temporary external management" of Russian subsidiaries of Italian water heating company Ariston and German appliance maker BSH Hausgeraete. The subsidiaries, Ariston Thermo Rus, and BSH Household Appliances, now come under the management of Gazprom's Household Systems and are now completely under Russia's control. The Executive Order, signed by President Vladimir Putin, which was revealed on Friday and backdated...

(European Union) Lawmakers want to see more support for Ukraine as US and UK counterparts advance. EU lawmakers have called for Russian state assets to be seized to support Ukraine, saying existing plans worth billions of euros don’t go far enough. EU countries are already discussing plans to deliver an aid package worth around €3bn a year to Ukraine by using the interest from capital held within the bloc by the Russian central bank. But EU lawmakers want to go further, as US counterparts finalise a €57 billion aid package for the war-torn country. “Europe needs to seize all of...

The European Council decided today to list four persons and two entities under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. "The listed individuals and entities are responsible for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and for the violation of right to property and to private and family life of Palestinians in the West Bank," the EU stated. "The listed entities are Lehava, a radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group, and Hilltop Youth, a radical youth group consisting of members known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the...

The European Union will "start the necessary work" to hit Iran with heavier sanctions after Saturday's aerial attack on Israel, the bloc's top diplomat has said. Speaking following an exceptional virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday, Josep Borrell said he would ask his services to study the possibility of expanding existing EU sanctions against Iranian drone technology. It would see the current sanctions regime - established in July 2023 to punish Iran for aiding Putin's war machine with unmanned drones - expanded to include missiles and to also cover Iran's proxies in the region. The bloc would also...

A Ukrainian loss, which could happen very soon if U.S. weapons don’t arrive, would ramp up Russian efforts to destabilize the governments of NATO countries and increase defense spending across the alliance, among other disastrous effects, Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s Defense Minister, told reporters Friday. When U.S. officials like President Joe Biden talk about why Ukraine matters, they rely on broad notions of democracy and the continuation of the international order—without specifically explaining what a Ukraine loss would mean for ordinary Americans. Perhaps because of this, Americans are evenly split on the question of whether the United States is doing too...

Europe’s top diplomat has acknowledged that the “era of Western dominance has indeed definitively ended”. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, wrote this in a blog post on the official website of the EU’s diplomatic service on February 25. “If the current global geopolitical tensions continue to evolve in the direction of ‘the West against the Rest’, Europe’s future risks to be bleak”, he warned.