After the Uffizi, the Gallery of Horrors. During a short visit to Florence, Italy, on Sunday, December 3, Jordan Bardella was able to admire the masterpieces of the Renaissance during a private visit and then hear, in the front row of the Basso Fortress, a series of Islamophobic, transphobic and conspiratorial statements of his European allies. Immersed in this cultural mix of European far-right parties, the president of the National Rally (RN) was one of the key speakers at the meeting organized by his partner Matteo Salvini, leader of the League and vice-president of the Italian Council.
In speeches with Trumpist undertones, participants denounced the alleged destruction of the “natural family,” the “replacement of the population of European origin” orchestrated by “the elites,” and the alleged power of the American philanthropist of Hungarian origin George Soros, favorite target of anti-Semitic conspirators. With his stage partners, Jordan Bardella reiterated his desire to defend a “Europe of large-scale projects, of cooperation, the Europe of borders and identities”.
The meeting sent Florence into turmoil six months before European elections in June 2024, which will coincide with local elections in Italy. In response to the Eurosceptic rally, the Tuscan city’s mayor, Dario Nardella (Democratic Party, center-left), illuminated the main Florentine monuments in European blue, while a few hundred people gathered for a demonstration near the gathering. “Due to its history, Florence is incompatible with a language of hate and fear,” replied Mr. Nardella.
Devitalization of the European Union
There was much talk about hate and fear in a congress hall where leaders of the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy (ID) group met with some 1,500 League activists and elected officials. Fear of the “demographic crisis”, according to the Bulgarian Kostadin Kostadinov, chairman of the ultra-nationalist party Vazrajdane (“Renaissance”), for whom “thanks to the policies of the anti-European elites in power, the population has become European.” The origins are aging and decreasing and will be replaced by Africans and Asians.”
The solution ? The fact that European peoples “activate their immune systems (…) in order to be masters of their own homes and not guests” is an expression of an organicist view of society on the part of the extreme right. The Bulgarian, known for his homophobic and anti-Roma comments, sat to Jordan Bardella’s left in the front row. He is being investigated in his country for “hate speech” after comments about the Shoah sparked the wrath of the World Jewish Congress.
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