Tag: fascism

We’re toasting to Spanish far right’s defeat for all the wrong reasons

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By Antonio Maestre, Journalist and writer

Vox is nothing more than a simplified expression of the ideas that were always seen as acceptable by Spain’s conservative hardliners, Antonio Maestre writes.

In 1994, former Spanish Foreign Legion Corporal Massimo Testa de Andrés died in Melilla and was buried in the city cemetery of La Purísima. 

Testa’s real name was Andrea Ghira: he was the infamous Butcher of Circeo and the perpetrator of one of the most violent crimes in Italian history. 

There is not a single Italian citizen alive in 1975 who does not remember the photograph of bloodied and beaten Donatella Colasanti being helped out of the boot of a Fiat 127 where Ghira, Gianni Guido and Angelo Izzo had put her together with Rosario López.

The three men kidnapped them, raped them for two days, tortured them, and left them both for dead while they went to have dinner with their families. 

They drowned López in a bathtub. Colasanti survived by pretending to drop dead after they struck her with an iron bar.

The crime was known as the Circeo massacre because it took place in the town where these three young men of the Roman bourgeoisie had a villa where they perpetrated the crime. 

The three murderers were linked to fascist parties and organisations. They considered the kidnap, rape and murder of two working-class girls good entertainment. 

The far-right hooligan Andrea Ghira never served a sentence for these crimes. He took refuge in Spain because all the fascists of the world have always known that it was a safe place for them and their ilk. 

Francoism never left the mainstream

Back to the present day: Europe, at least a part of it, has breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the results of the July general elections in Spain, in which the extreme right lost a significant portion of its seats in the parliament and has not managed to enter the government together with the Popular Party (PP) as the polls predicted.

The international press has since dubbed Spain as an anti-fascist bridgehead that has managed to go against the rising influence of the post-fascists on our continent today. 

Yet, it did so without delving into the profound particularities of a country that has long metabolised its ideology within the institutions. 

In Spain, the ideology that has never been persecuted or sanctioned is not seen as politically incorrect or unacceptable. 

In fact, fascism, or its Spanish derivative, Francoism, has undergone a process of institutional integration during Francisco Franco’s rule that makes it very difficult for it to stand apart from the mainstream in order to become novel or avant-garde, as it does in other European countries such as Germany or France, where it was persecuted.

A history of letting fascists sleep peacefully

What Germany, France and Italy do have in common is the exile of their leading figures of the criminal extreme right to Spain. 

The cemeteries of Madrid are the final resting place of the most distinguished figures of international fascism. Only the leaders of the extreme right who were annihilated by the Partisans or persecuted by the Allies did not fall into eternal sleep in the capital of Spain. 

The cases are innumerable, but it is worth mentioning some of these infamous figures in the criminal history of fascism. 

Personalities such as Ante Pavelić, the Croatian Nazi Ustaša leader who collected human eyes to decorate the centrepieces of his office tables, Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, the Nazi Vichy collaborationist in charge of Jewish affairs, and Otto Skorzeny, an SS colonel and head of Nazi special operations, passed through Spain, rested, took refuge and led a public and social life. 

The collusion of the Spanish state, its dictatorship-derived laws surviving in democracy, a philo-fascist right wing and a social democracy unwilling to carry out a thorough revision of Franco’s rule and bring foreign and domestic war criminals to justice made Spain a paradise for any fascist or Nazi in search of a peaceful retirement. 

Protections that were forged during Franco’s regime continued in a democracy that refused to respect the demands of the countries of origin of the fugitives whenever extradition was requested, justified by the fact that certain crimes were not criminalised in the Spanish legal system.

Those in Europe celebrating that Spain has not fallen prey to the extreme right in the last election do not fully understand that the danger lies not so much in an extreme right that will never get beyond 15% of the vote but rather in a conservative mainstream that is very affectionate to post-fascists because they have always felt close to the same ideas. 

Vox only says the quiet part loud

The Spanish conservative right is much more radical than its counterpart in Germany and France for the simple reason that it was formed on the premise of the triumph of its local fascism. 

In Spain, they were victorious and have not had to be ashamed of their legacy in the Civil War and dictatorship, whereas, in Germany or France, they were built on the premise of repudiation of a past or confrontation with Nazism in World War II. 

The extreme right in Spain had been latent for many years within the PP itself, and Vox is nothing more than a simplified expression of the ideas always seen as acceptable by conservative hardliners. 

The likes of Vox’s leader Santiago Abascal simply dare to say them out loud and publicly defend them. 

And in the run-up to the 2024 European elections, Europe’s conservatives, like their Spanish peers, are choosing the same attitude of quiet acceptance of the new far-right parties’ fascist ideas.

To put it simply: the European conservative right has learned it cannot defeat the extreme right and has decided to build bridges with them instead. 

Europe’s conservatives will now take a page out of Spain’s book

The European People’s Party (EPP) flagbearers, including Italy’s Antonio Tajani and Germany’s Manfred Weber, have already made strides to integrate fascists into the much larger conservative family. Alberto Nuñez Feijóo would have been one more piece of that movement. 

The leader of the Spanish PP wanted Italian Prime Minister and leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia Giorgia Meloni to join the EPP, as he made abundantly clear in a joint interview with the newspapers El Mundo and Corriere Della Sera. 

Spain is an example in Europe not for what has been celebrated as the brave resistance of PSOE’s leader Pedro Sánchez to the rise of the extreme right, but for having been the archetype of a democratic state that has never dealt with lingering fascist ideas in the institutions favouring the impunity of those who committed crimes protected by that criminal ideology. 

And if anything, Spain will now serve as the model for how to integrate the extreme right into the mainstream without it being too noticeable.

Antonio Maestre is a journalist and writer. He is a regular contributor to eldiario.es, La Sexta and La Marea, as well as Le Monde Diplomatique and Jacobin. Maestre is the author of books Los Rotos (“The Broken Ones”), Infames (“Infamous”), and Franquismo S.A. (“Francoism PLC”).

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

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In the most recent election, Greek far right made a sinister comeback

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By Georgios Samaras, Assistant Professor, King’s College London

An obscure extremist party’s surprising result represents uncharted territory for Greece as it grapples with the resurgence of extreme right-wing ideologies just three years after the conviction of Golden Dawn, Georgios Samaras writes.

On 15 June, just two weeks before the second round of the Greek general election, a cryptic photograph posted on Twitter by Ilias Kasidiaris, the imprisoned neo-Nazi politician and former member of parliament for Golden Dawn, sent shockwaves through the political landscape. 

Kasidiaris urged his supporters to rally behind a mysterious political entity known as Spartiátes, or Spartans.

Fast forward two weeks, and the unimaginable had happened. Spartans, an obscure political party that had previously flown under the radar, managed to secure a notable 4.64% of the total vote share, earning twelve seats in the 300-seat-strong Greek Parliament. 

How did this happen, and who exactly are Spartans?

Racism, Holocaust denial and prison endorsements

The roots of the party can be traced back to 2017 when its leader, Vasilis Stigkas, made a noteworthy appearance on a far-right YouTube channel hosted by neo-Nazi author Konstantinos Plevris. 

Eager to expand their influence and solidify their presence, Spartans made a bid in the 2019 European Parliament election. However, their alliance with the Énosi Kentróon, or Union of Centrists party failed to yield the desired outcome.

The party’s close association with Ilias Kasidiaris, who sought to establish the far-right extremist political entity Hellenes (“Greeks”) upon his departure from Golden Dawn, cannot be ignored. 

Despite serving a prison sentence for his involvement in a criminal organisation alongside Golden Dawn, Kasidiaris assumed sole leadership within Hellenes. 

The party quickly gained traction through its active presence on various social media platforms, attracting attention and amassing a following among far-right circles.

Kasidiaris took advantage of his access to social media platforms, utilising them to unleash his distinctive podcast and regularly disseminate provocative statements via Twitter and YouTube. 

His content focused on his self-proclaimed status as a political prisoner, vehemently criticising the government’s lockdown policies and spreading anti-vaccination propaganda.

Hellenes also dabbled in overt racism, Islamophobia, and Holocaust denial — talking points all shared with Golden Dawn.

Hellenes ban brings on Spartans

The government attempted to curb the influence of convicted politicians associated with Golden Dawn by passing a law in 2021 barring them from assuming leadership positions in political parties. 

However, Kasidiaris boldly revealed his intention in early 2023 to run for a parliamentary seat, prompting the government to enact emergency legislation that banned him from participating in the upcoming election.

Undeterred, Kasidiaris patiently waited until mid-June, strategically timing the completion of the party registration process ahead of the Greek General Election in June 2023. 

With calculated precision, he unveiled his endorsement of Spartans on Twitter. 

This move had been carefully orchestrated over several weeks, with the ultimate goal of aligning himself with an unknown political party that would act as Kasidiaris’ Trojan horse. 

Most importantly, several candidates of Spartans who secured seats in the Greek Parliament have ties to the Hellenes, while others are closely associated with the neo-fascist Golden Dawn.

Leading from the shadows of a prison cell

It is no coincidence that, on the eve of the election, Vasilis Stigkas, the leader of Spartans, expressed gratitude to the convicted neo-Nazi politician Kasidiaris, heralding a transformative era in Greek politics. 

With Kasidiaris’ unwavering support, Spartans became his indirect representation within the Greek Parliament. 

Without his backing, the far-right party would have struggled to gain such a significant share of the votes in a Greek electoral contest.

Spartans now find themselves joined by two additional far-right parties that have secured seats in the Greek Parliament: the ultraorthodox Niki (which stands for Democratic Patriotic Movement – Victory) and the pro-Russian Greek Solution. 

Together, this far-right bloc has garnered a shocking 34 seats out of the 300 available, commanding a formidable presence with 12.77% of the total vote.

No left to speak of

The rise of the far-right in the country can be attributed to the ongoing normalisation of extreme practices in Greek politics, in particular by the ruling New Democracy and PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. 

The government’s involvement in pushbacks against refugees and the accusations of wiretapping political opponents and journalists have played a crucial role in the gradual conservative shift within Greek society.

The composition of the parliament is unsettling and suggests uncharted territory for Greece as it grapples with the resurgence of extreme right-wing ideologies just three years after the conviction of Golden Dawn. 

The declining influence of the former party in parliament seems to have been supplanted by Spartans within this newly formed far-right bloc.

Greece now faces a critical question: Is the country prepared to combat far-right extremism for the second time in a decade? 

Compounding the challenge is the weakened state of the left and the prevailing dominance of conservatism in Greek politics. 

As the fight against the remnants of Golden Dawn intensifies, Greece must confront a more formidable challenge than ever before.

Georgios Samaras is an Assistant Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Political Economy, King’s College London.

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Ron DeSantis Achieves New Dickishness Personal Worst

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has had a busy week, signing several bills that will further encrappen the state and make life miserable for LGBTQ folks, all in the hope that he’ll prove himself authoritarian enough to appeal to Republican primary voters next year. He’s been traveling across America’s Dangling Appendage signing bills restricting people’s freedom while claiming that Florida is the home of freedom, as long as you’re a rightwing evangelical. (We think we’ll just stop at “evangelical” from here on, since adding “Christian” to it just makes baby Jesus sad.)

Monday, DeSantis went to New College of Florida in Sarasota, the nice little liberal arts school he’s ruining to turn into a rightwing indoctrination center, to sign several bills aimed at purifying Florida colleges and universities of “wokeness.” It was his way of twisting the knife a bit, to remind the Liberal Elites who’s in charge. Your fascists love that kind of symbolic humiliation shit, like how a former German corporal insisted in 1940 that France surrender in the same railroad car where the 1919 Armistice was signed.

But sometimes the vanquished just won’t cooperate and admit they’ve been crushed, darn them. As Yr Wonkette noted Saturday, the official graduation speaker for New College’s commencement was Dr. Scott Atlas, Donald Trump’s Infect Everyone and Let God Sort ‘Em Out COVID adviser, which was supposed to be a sick burn on the libs. Instead of going along, New College students scheduled their own commencement for tonight, and civil rights attorney Maya Wiley will deliver the keynote speech. It’s as if those libs don’t even know they’ve been owned. Sad!

We Don’t Need No Education

As we say, DeSantis went to New College to ritually defile the corpse of his enemy, by signing bills that will further his goal of ramping up white grievance against higher education and nonexistent “liberal indoctrination.” The biggie is Senate Bill 266, which defunds and prohibits “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) programs in higher education, because as we all know from racist memes, diversity is just code for white genocide. DeSantis kept a lid on the open racism and went for the respectable old dog whistle of “reverse racism” instead, saying,

“If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination. […] And that has no place in our public institutions.”

DeSantis proclaimed an end to diversity, crowing that “This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida. We are eliminating the DEI programs.”

In addition, the bill also cracks down further on academic freedom, specifying that general education classes — the core of classes for all undergrads — may not “distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics,” and must not be based on

theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.

Lasting effects of Jim Crow? Certainly not in Florida! America is perfect in Florida! A history prof could teach about redlining, presumably, as long as they don’t suggest that it created a structural imbalance in how wealth is accumulated in the US, because it’s just pure coincidence that some people inherited homes in neighborhoods that had restrictive covenants, while other people never saw such generational wealth transfer. Discrimination vanished after the Fair Housing Act in 1968, because it’s right in the name of the law, and how dare you suggest that the playing field was never level?

The bill also demands that gen ed classes of all kinds emphasize “Western Civilization,” the best civilization there is, and requires that humanities classes include works from the “Western” canon, although studying inferior books from less important cultures will be tolerated for now at least.

Other bills DeSantis signed Monday included House Bill 931, which prohibits colleges from requiring a “political loyalty test” — i.e., from committing to diversity or anything like it. It also requires that all “public policy events” include equal time for opposing views, which as far as we can tell means that if you have a Pride event you have to invite Matt Walsh.

Finally, another measure will weaken tenure protections for professors, who need to be kept in line with the threat of being fired if they get too mouthy about any of this.

‘Don’t Say Gay’ On Steroids, And Worse

To mark yesterday’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, which commemorates the World Health Organization’s 1990 removal of LGBTQ+ identity from its list of “mental disorders” — Jesus H Christ on a Segway, it took that long! — DeSantis signed four anti-LGBTQ measures into law, ensuring that civil rights attorneys and activists will at least have a booming business for the next few years as they work to shut that shit down. Honestly, it’s well past time that, instead of the Bugs Bunny gif, we instead force Florida back into the US of A and make it respect all its residents’ rights.

Florida’s state medical board last year adopted rules restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth. Yesterday, DeSantis made it a matter of law by signing Senate Bill 254, which prohibits puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for minors (as we always point out, gender-affirming surgery is already extremely rare for patients under 18).

As indy journalist Erin Reed notes, this one’s far worse than the usual run of such bills, because it also bans nurse practitioners from providing any gender-affirming meds, which won’t just deny care to minors but to adults, since according to Florida healthcare provider SPEKTRUM Health, up to 80 percent of gender-affirming care in Florida is provided by NPs. As Reed reports, this has already led to appointments being cancelled and people losing access to medication.

The bill became effective as soon as DeSantis signed it, and the Human Rights Campaign reports that parents who are already suing to block the state medical board’s anti-trans measures are seeking an emergency order to block SB 254 immediately. Other lawsuits are certain to follow.

DeSantis also signed what might be the most restrictive “bathroom bill” in the country, HB 1521, as Reed explains.

The wording of the bill states that if a cisgender person is in the bathroom with a transgender person, an employee can tell the transgender person to leave. Should the transgender person not leave immediately for any reason, they will be charged with criminal trespass, which can carry sentences of up to 1 year in jail. […]

While the provisions do not ban all bathroom usage, they cast a wide net over an alarming number of locations that would fall under definitions of “public” in the bill. This includes all buildings owned or leased by any governmental entity, educational institutions spanning from elementary schools to private colleges and universities, numerous hospitals owned by universities, many sports arenas, convention centers, city parks, beaches, airports, and more.

The bill makes no exceptions for trans folk who have updated their gender status on official documents like birth certificates or drivers licenses, instead defining sex as a matter of chromosomes and genitalia, which opens the hellish possibility that people trying to relieve themselves in a stall with a locked door will be subjected to freaking medical investigations. It’s also a no-win situation, as Reed notes, since

Transgender people who are androgenous or pass as their gender identity will likely be challenged in the bathroom of their birth sex. Those trans people will then be forced to undergo the same investigation into their gender. In essence, it amounts to a ban on bathrooms for transgender people entirely.

HB 1521 goes into effect on July 1 — avoiding Pride month, isn’t that cute? — by which time the lawsuits challenging it may have made headway, we hope. If it isn’t already enjoined by then, get ready for lots of pushback, too, from cisgender folks who are challenged by toilet vigilantes. Sadly, in Florida, those cases may get the most media attention, because oh no, the “wrong” people are being harmed.

DeSantis also signed HB 1069, which expands the already awful “Don’t Say Gay” law to 12th grade, and will prohibit trans students from asking to please be addressed by their correct pronouns, as well as encouraging even more vicious censorship of books in classrooms and school libraries. It too becomes effective July 1. A final member of the shitshow quartet, SB 1438, expands Florida’s “obscenity” laws to include drag shows; it’s almost certain to be used to attack Pride parades. Reed notes it has “already led to cancellations of pride events, including the Treasure Coast Pride Parade.”

All of the bills DeSantis signed this week are blatantly unconstitutional, so this might be a good time to donate, if you can, to groups like Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign, or the ACLU of Florida. As the inevitable lawsuits against this fuckery ramp up, we’ll bring you more information on how to help. As Yr Wonkette likes to point out when we discuss the climate crisis, things are pretty fucked, but we have the advantage of being on the right side. Americans do not want this crap, and there’s a lot of mobilization to do — like the major federal lawsuit that’s just been launched by Florida parents, PEN America, and Random House against school library censorship, about which we’ll have more shortly.

Be an activist. Be an ally. Fight this shit with love and passion and smartassery (but don’t mistake snark for activism, you in the back, there). This humbug shall not stand, man.

[NBC News / NPR / Erin in the Morning]

Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please give $5 or $10 a month to help us help you keep that fire in your heart.

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Pandemic-born far-right party has rattled Romania’s democratic future

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By Andrei Tiut, Programme Director, GlobalFocus Centre

The main parties’ belief that they can regain far-right voters lost to AUR through nationalist and ultra-conservative discourse might resurrect the ghosts of Romania’s past even further instead of letting them go once and for all, Andrei Tiut writes.

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to be a testament that Romanian democracy, while challenged, still functioned. 

Like other Eastern European countries, Romania had imposed relatively severe restrictions from the start, which led to a “flattening of the curve” in the first months of the pandemic. 

Yet, at some point, and without any instantly apparent reason, things began to unravel. 

Exceptions were carved out for some. The prime minister, the minister of health, and other officials were photographed violating the rules they themselves imposed. 

While the restrictions actually softened over time, they became harder and harder to understand and, therefore, accept. 

As politicians continued to fumble, confidence in the government’s decisions collapsed. Vaccination rates declined, and conspiracy theories flourished despite the visibly increasing number of cases and deaths.

The far-right rises to the occasion

Two propaganda forces came to the fore in this period. Firstly, the Archbishop of Tomis took advantage of the initial confusion within the Romanian Orthodox Church to oppose the restrictions and encourage believers to attend liturgy despite legal limitations. 

Secondly, a new party called Alliance for the Unity of Romanians or AUR came to the forefront of political debate.

It combines elements of the “unionist” discourse — that is, promoting the unification between Romania and the neighbouring Republic of Moldova — with elements of Christian nationalism with fascist undertones. 

The party is led by George Simion, a well-known advocate for the unification between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, and Claudiu Târziu, an apologist for the Romanian fascist period and its historical personalities.

In the December 2020 elections, AUR, which had also brought Diana Șoșoacă — previously the public advocate of the Archbishop of Tomis — to its party lists, scored a surprising 9%. 

The party would continue to grow during the pandemic, briefly ranking as the second-strongest party in Romania according to some polls. 

Currently, AUR and Șoșoacă’s breakaway party SOS together hold around 20% of the vote.

Communist dictatorship spawns sympathy for Romania’s fascists

In Romania, the fascist past comes in two flavours. 

On the one hand, we have the Legionary Movement, also known as the Iron Guard, which espouses boilerplate fascism, including the cult of death and mystical discourse. 

It remains, however, notable for its chaotic and disorganised character, to the point that Hitler himself had to authorise World War II fascist dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu (with whom the Iron Guard shared the government) to eliminate them through a coup.

During the post-war period, Romania’s communist dictatorship’s persecution of the Iron Guard fed the myth espoused by their supporters today. 

After the war, both fascists and democrats were imprisoned by Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime in the same prisons. 

They shared the same cells, ate the same food, prayed together to the same God, and many of them died due to the same inhumane treatment. 

After the 1989 Revolution, with the help of some right-wing intellectuals, they were rediscovered and promoted together under the label of “saints of the prisons”.

‘Overly liberal’ Soviets make some Romanian communists turn to nationalism

The second legacy is that of Marshal Antonescu. As he took over the full leadership of the state and turned it into a para-fascist personal dictatorship similar to Franco’s Spain or Salazar’s Portugal, Antonescu ordered pogroms and deportations in the occupied territory of the Soviet Union, making Romania infamous as a major actor in the Holocaust.

After the war, he was put on trial for war crimes and executed in 1946. 

But, after the initial purge of elements from the old regime, hardline Romanian communists sought to distance themselves from the Soviet Union, whose leaders, from Khrushchev to Gorbachev, could occasionally be too “liberal” for their taste. 

To attract the Romanian population to their side, a new ideology aggregated communist propaganda with nationalist elements, turning into what historians call national-communism. 

Texts by Marx criticising the Tsarist Empire — ergo, Russia — were used, peppered with elements of the far-right discourse. In this context, certain parts of the memory of Antonescu survived albeit discreetly, for example, in literary works that managed to get past the censors.

In today’s Romania, AUR combines and capitalises on both of these traditions. 

Football hooliganism, racism, and Nazi apologia

Its charismatic leader, George Simion, first became infamous in the world of football after organising no less than two fan clubs-turned-hooligan groups. 

He promoted a nationalist-unionist message that appeared to be tolerant of more radical elements.

While Simion kept his distance from some of the seedier aspects, football stadiums in Romania are known for anti-Roma chants, including occasional calls for the “Antonescu solution” — meaning, pogroms.

Initially, the party had dual leadership: the other president was Claudiu Târziu, a well-known apologist who had tried to defend historical Iron Guard figures against the accusations levelled against them.

They were joined by Șoșoacă, who became well-known in the public eye for her extremely vocal position against pandemic restrictions. 

She brings to Romanian politics a volcanic style reminiscent of the nationalist leader Corneliu “Vadim” Tudor — a senator and MEP known for his anti-semitic, homophobic, and racist views who was famously accused of keeping a blacklist of his political enemies to be arrested and persecuted if he ever came to power.

For what it’s worth, AUR is more conspiratorial than extremist

With such a pedigree, we might be tempted to consider AUR a new iteration of ultra-nationalism and fascism. However, it is not clear that the party’s members and voters would agree. 

There are no clear studies of the motivations of AUR’s electorate in present-day Romania, but the party’s rise did not coincide with any marked worsening of ethnic relations. 

The party seems to thrive on socio-economic crises, including the handling of the pandemics and high inflation. 

Moreover, Târziu, representing the intellectual and ideological side of the party, seems to have been marginalised, leaving Simion in the driver’s seat, whose discourse is more populist and aimed at the “common man”. 

Extremist language is still there — a signature brand of the party playing the role of an outsider who is there to iritate mainstream politicians and intellectuals — but the main focus is on fearmongering and anti-Western conspiratorial discourse. 

It is more likely to hear AUR members fantasising about how European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will force them to eat insects than to see them requesting a new “final solution”.

Prodded by growing discontent, others turned to imitating AUR

The most worrisome part is not so much reflected in the natural growth of the far right, particularly since the beginning of the war when AUR began having problems reconciling its pro- and anti-Kremlin constituencies. 

It is the panic of mainstream politicians who seem to believe that imitating AUR is the key to taking back their electorate.

Starting from December 2022, a series of issues have put Romania in conflict with Austria regarding Romania’s entry into the Schengen area and with Ukraine regarding the treatment of minorities and the fate of the Bystroye canal — a deepwater canal on the Danube delta between Romania and the latter. 

Additionally, Romanian farmers are going through a crisis that is the combined result of low production, cheap imports from Ukraine, and poor negotiation with the EU regarding financial compensation. 

On these issues, with the exception perhaps of grain imports, Romania has arguably legitimate grievances against both Austria — which keeps using Romania’s application to the Schengen for its own internal politicking — and Ukraine, which is pushing the limits of international treaties. 

We should stop resurrecting the ghosts of Romania’s past

Legitimate criticism that could have been expressed in a liberal language focused on the values of the rule of law was, nevertheless, instrumentalised in a nationalist and populist manner by the main political parties.

However, in all instances where research done at the GlobalFocus Centre measured discussions on these subjects in social media, the conversation was dominated authoritatively by AUR, even when one of the governing parties invested money in promoting its messages. 

It was, after all, predictable. When major parties normalise extremist discourse, the electorate will usually turn towards the parties from which this discourse originated, choosing the original over the copy.

Anti-Western discourse seems to have calmed down lately, possibly due to pressure from Western partners and almost certainly due to pressure from President Klaus Iohannis. 

However, the main parties’ belief that they can regain far-right voters through nationalist and ultra-conservative discourse does not seem to have disappeared entirely.

This, in turn, should be cause for concern that Romanian politics might resurrect the ghosts of the country’s past even further instead of letting go of them once and for all.

Andrei Tiut is Programme Director for Democratic Resilience at the Bucharest-based GlobalFocus Centre. Tiut specialises in the Romanian far right and Russian-aligned propaganda.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

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Montana Silences Zooey Zephyr

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The Montana Legislature this week took up a raft of legislation aimed at eliminating trans people. One bill would write transgender people out of the state’s legal code, requiring that birth certificates, drivers licenses, and even death certificates list only a person’s sex at birth. Another would allow public school teachers to deliberately misgender trans students, with no provision for parents to instruct schools to use the child’s preferred pronouns. A third would amend an anti-porn bill to ban “acts of transgenderism” from any website that doesn’t require age verification, treating most LGBTQ sites as if they were porn.

Finally, both houses passed a final version of Senate Bill 99, which not only bans gender-affirming medical care for minors but also will require trans minors to immediately stop taking their medication, forcing them to begin detransitioning. (At least, unlike in Missouri, adults will be able to continue their medical care. For now.) That’s to “protect” them by forcing them to experience puberty as the sex with which they don’t identify. The bill provides for both civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution against any healthcare provider who “harms” a trans youth by giving them the care recommended by virtually all medical and mental health professional organizations in the US.

PREVIOUSLY: What IS Gender Affirming Health Care For Kids Anyway, Because Texas Is Super F*cking Lying About It Right?

Missouri Attorney General Singlehandedly Bans Care For Trans Adults Too, No Law Required

SB 99 passed both houses once, but Gov. Greg Gianforte sent it back with amendments that, among other things, got rid of the word “procedures” to ensure that all medical treatment was banned — get it, because your medication isn’t a “procedure” — and more extensively defined “sex” more comprehensively around reproductive organs, declaring, “In human beings, there are exactly two sexes, male and female, with two corresponding types of gametes,” do not pass GO, do not collect a tiara if you have a dong. The amended bill passed Wednesday and went to Gianforte for his signature, once more over the protests of pediatricians and other medical professionals who warned again that trans kids will be harmed.

That, after all, was the point.

Blood On Their Hands

It was, finally, too much for first-term state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, Montana’s first trans legislator, who gave a blistering condemnation of the bill, as well as the cover letter Gianforte sent the House regarding his requested amendments. Please watch this speech, since it may well be the last time the Republican supermajority allowed Rep. Zephyr to speak in defense of the trans community.

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Zephyr rejected Gianforte’s assertion that SB 99 would “protect” Montana children, saying that forcing puberty on a trans young person amounts to torture. She also rejected his notion that the bill still allows “psychotherapy to treat young Montanans struggling with their gender identity.” But without the transitional medical care that’s actually the proper treatment for gender dysphoria — puberty blockers, with the option of hormone treatment later (most people delay surgery until after they’re 18 anyway) — Zephyr correctly pointed out that the only “psychotherapy” that remains would be “conversion therapy, which is torture.”

But the real fire of Zephyr’s comments was reserved for the state Legislature and for the fraud of SB 99 itself, with its attempt to legislate all humans into a gender binary, an idea as ridiculous, Zephyr said, as legislating that the Earth is flat. As for the claim that “life altering” medical treatment must be delayed until adulthood, Zephyr said,

“If you are forcing a trans child to go through puberty when they are trans, that is tantamount to torture. This body should be ashamed.”

House Majority Leader Sue Vinton (R) objected to that, saying that her caucus “will not be shamed.”

Nevertheless, Zephyr persisted.

“Then the only thing I will say is that if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”

Vinton and nearly all the other Republicans stood to object, and Vinton said that Zephyr’s comments were “inappropriate, disrespectful and uncalled for.”

Freedom’s Just Another Word For Shut Up And Sit Down

Within hours, the “Montana Freedom Caucus” tweeted out a call for Zephyr to be censured, claiming that the Legislature is a place for “civil discourse” while deliberately misgendering Zephyr in both the tweet and the attached press release, and lying that her comments had been “threatening.” We suppose that actually recognizing the blood on their hands might scare them, though.

Zephyr also tweeted a letter from an ER doctor who recently wrote to her that a colleague had treated a suicidal transgender teen who said that they mostly wanted to die because the were constantly being told that their very existence was wrong. The teen

“referenced the current legislative session and told my partner, ‘My state doesn’t want me.’ Please consider that statement and let it sink in. This young teen is so distressed by the laws that you all have been discussing and passing, that they were driven to want to kill themselves.”

Zephyr prefaced the letter by saying, “When I said there is blood on their hands, I meant it.”

This Isn’t Legislating, This Is Genocide

Then yesterday, the House finished debate on SB 458, which enshrines in state law that binary definition of “sex” as either male or female, and nothing else. The law — which is probably unconstitutional, as if that matters anymore — effectively writes trans people out of 41 sections of Montana law. For instance, it specifies that the state’s law against discrimination now means that “a person may not be subjected to discrimination because of sex, as defined in 1-1-201, race, creed, religion, age, physical or mental disability, color, or national origin.” That section, of course, is the bit saying “there are exactly two sexes, male and female,” etc.

Another clause notes that the state’s “fair campaign practices” code means that candidates will pledge to “not make any appeal to prejudice based on race, sex, as defined in 1-1-201, creed, or national origin” — in other words, campaigning on prejudice against trans folks is apparently 100 percent ethical in Montana.

Housing and job discrimination against trans people? Completely legal now. And birth and death certificates and drivers licenses can only list the person’s sex at birth. You’ll be permanently misgendered even in the grave.

You get the idea.

We’re Republicans, We Can Do What We Want

As Zephyr stood to voice her objections to the bill, House Speaker Matt Regier (R), refused to recognize her, which prompted a formal objection from Minority Leader Kim Abbott (D) and other Democrats. Regier said that as speaker, he decides who will speak and who won’t, and that’s that: “It is up to me to maintain decorum here on the House floor, to protect the dignity and integrity, and any representative I don’t feel can do that will not be recognized.”

The Democratic objection led to a meeting of the Rules Committee, where after some debate, the Republicans voted that Regier does indeed have the power to decide who can participate in debate, or not. But before that, the Rs tossed in an incidental threat to also silence Native American Rep. Sharon Stewart Peregoy (D), for warning that the Legislature was headed down a slippery slope to fascism, how dare she.

Regier later told reporters that unless Zephyr properly apologizes for her rude behavior, she won’t be allowed to speak again for the remainder of the 2023 legislative session, which is likely to run for another two weeks or so.

Zephyr made clear that she has nothing to apologize for, because these bills are going to kill trans kids, just as hatred has already killed trans people:

“I have lost friends to suicide this year,” she said. “I field the calls from multiple families who dealt with suicide attempts, with trans youth who have fled the state, people who have been attacked on the side of the road, because of legislation like this. I spoke with clarity and precision about the harm these bills do. And they say they want an apology, but what they really want is silence as they take away the rights of trans and queer Montanans.”

The Montana Democratic Party and the Montana American Indian Caucus both issued statements condemning the silencing of Zephyr, as well as the Montana Freedom Caucus for misgendering her. The latter statement also praised Zephyr for “speaking up for the Montana trans, nonbinary, and Two-Spirit community,” and condemned the legislature’s passage of laws that “spread disinformation and fear, prevent them from receiving life-saving health care, ban their self-expression, and erase them from all public life.”

Fascist Creeps And Creeping Fascism

Montana’s silencing of Zooey Zephyr is proof that Republicans haven’t learned anything at all from the backlash to Tennessee Republicans’ attempt to silence two Black Democrats who spoke up (without permission, egad!) against gun violence.

Or maybe the Montana GOP did learn something. The House speaker silenced her even though there was no censure resolution at all. Just to add to the farce, the Montana “Freedom” Caucus celebrated Zephyr’s silencing with another press release that flat out lied, claiming that the Legislature had “officially” voted to censure Zephyr. Of course, no such vote happened, just the Rules Committee vote affirming that Regier can silence anyone he wants.

Not like anyone will be allowed to call that a lie in the House. Wouldn’t be civil.

[Erin in the Morning / Daily Montanan / Montana Free Press]

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