Thousands of right-wing supporters gathered in Italy for an event dubbed the ‘anti-migrant Glastonbury’ where they cheered on hard-right leaders including Geert Wilders and Viktor Orban.
The rally – held annually at Pontida in northern Italy – saw revellers enjoying sausages and plenty of beer as they listened to right-wing leaders from across the continent discuss illegal migration.
One of the major headliners was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who has led the Eastern European nation for nearly 15 years transforming it into what he calls a ‘Illiberal democracy.’
Speaking in Pontida he said: ‘We will never hand our countries over to foreigners.’
The Dutch politician Geert Wilders also spoke at the event. Wilder’s hard-right Freedom Party (PVV) topped the polls in a surprise victory at the Dutch general election last year.
European right-wing polticains from left to right: Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italian deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini
Salvini is the darling of the Italian hard-right with many supporters in the crowd carrying banners emblazoned with ‘Io sto con Salvini’ or ‘I’m with Salvini’
Thousands of right-wing supporters have gathered in Italy for an event dubbed the ‘anti-migrant Glastonbury ‘
Despite only half of the 25,000 expected attendees making the journey to Pontida, spirits remained high for organisers in a year which has seen record results for hard-right parties across Europe
Wilders’ PVV now find themselves as part of a coalition government for the first time.
The politician used his time on stage to claim that ‘there is a tsunami of mass illegal migration making us strangers in our own land.’
Both leaders shared plenty of affection for the host of the transnational festival – Italian deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini – with Orban calling him a ‘hero’ and Wilders going as far to tell Salvini ‘I Love You.’
The Salvini lovefest marked a remarkable improvement in his political fortunes after the leader of Italy’s League Party saw his support collapse at the 2022 election when his fellow right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni was elected as Prime Minister.
Salvini’s rise back to prominence was helped when a court in Sicily attempted to jail him for six years last month for stranding a boat of rescued migrants at sea when he was Interior Minister in 2019.
Ahead of the the next hearing on October 18 a defiant Salvini told supporters: ‘I would go to jail with my head held high – they can arrest one person but they cannot arrest a whole people!’
The case has helped make Salvini the darling of the Italian hard-right once again with many supporters in the crowd carrying banners emblazoned with ‘Io sto con Salvini’ or ‘I’m with Salvini.’
His apparent surging popularity could damage Meloni’s claim to be the leader of the European right. The Italian PM has recently decided to distance herself from the more populist wing of the right and instead has increased ties with more mainstream right-wing parties.
One of the major headliners was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who has led the Eastern European nation for nearly 15 years transforming it into what he calls a ‘Illiberal democracy.’ Speaking in Pontida he said: ‘We will never hand our countries over to foreigners’
The Dutch politician Geert Wilders also spoke at the event. Wilder’s hard-right Freedom Party (PVV) topped the polls in a surprise victory at the Dutch general election last year
The Salvini lovefest marked a remarkable improvement in his political fortunes after the leader of Italy’s League Party saw his support collapse at the 2022 election when his fellow right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni was elected as Prime Minister
Despite only half of the 25,000 expected attendees making the journey to Pontida, spirits remained high for organisers in a year which has seen record results for hard-right parties across Europe.
In Austria, the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) won the September election despite the party being criticised for referring to their candidate for Chancellor, Herbert Kickl, as the ‘People’s Chancellor’ which was a phrase used to describe Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Marlene Swazek, the vice-president of the FPO was in Pontida where she promised to make Austria a ‘fortress.’
Elsewhere in Europe, Germany’s AfD party won an election for the first time in its history after it topped the poll in a regional election in the former East German state of Thuringia.
France’s National Rally caused a political earthquake in June when they won the EU election there. This led French President Emmanuel Macron to take a political gamble by calling a back me or sack me snap legislative election.
The gamble paid off and the National Rally finished third as the famous cordon sanitaire in French politics – designed to keep the far right out of government – remained intact with voters backing Macron’s centrist Ensemble and a coalition of left-wing parties instead.
Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old president of the National Rally spoke at the event via a video link.
The rally – held annually in Pontida near Bergamo, Italy – saw revellers enjoying sausages and plenty of beer as they listened to right-wing leaders from across the continent spout anti-migrant rhetoric
In Austria, the Freedom Party (FPO) won the recent election despite the party being criticised for referring to their candidate for Chancellor as the ‘People’s Chancellor’ which was a phrased used to describe Hitler. Marlene Swazek (pictured), the vice-president of the FPO, was in Pontida where she promised to make Austria a ‘fortress’
Salvini poses for a selfie with two young supporters. The rise of hard-right parties across Europe has in party been driven by the support of young people across the continent
Much of the rise of right-wing populism across continental Europe has been driven by support from young people who are attracted to the anti-establishment and anti-migrant messaging.
Luigi, 15, told The Times that Italy must defend its borders and he claimed Bergamo train station – the nearest city to Pontida – was ‘full of migrants.’
Major gains for hard-right parties might not be over with the upcoming general election in Romania later this year.
The right-wing eurosceptic Alliance of Uniting Romania (AUR) has been tipped to potentially come second when Romanians go to the polls in December.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
