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From Netanyahu to Orbán, Global Far-Right Figures Celebrate Trump Win
A veritable Who's Who of fascist-facing leaders lined up to congratulate the man who said he'd be a dictator on "day one" of his impending presidency.
Nov 06, 2024
Current and former far-right leaders around the world cheered U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's remarkable victory in Tuesday's election, in which the twice-impeached, 34-count convicted felon, self- and court-affirmed sexual assaulter, and insurrection-fomenting 78-year-old Republican won not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote in what some observers described as a "mandate for fascism."
In Israel—which the Biden administration buoyed with massive military and diplomatic support even as it faces a genocide case at the World Court for a war on Gaza that's killed more than 43,000 Palestinians—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump's victory is "history's greatest comeback" and represents a "powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America."
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister and leader of the Jewish supremacist Otzma Yehudit party, reposted an earlier message in which he proclaimed, "God Bless Trump."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was the first European leader to endorse Trump in 2016, lauded the Republican's "enormous win," which he called "a much-needed victory for the world."
Argentinian President Javier Milei—who campaigned as a libertarian populist but has governed like a neoliberal shock doctrinaire—hailed Trump's "formidable electoral victory."
"Now, Make America Great Again," he added. "You know that you can count on Argentina to carry out your task."
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—who Trump recently accused of sending gang members to the U.S. to insidiously reduce crime in his country—wished divine blessings and guidance for the president-elect.
Arab dictators—from the monarchs of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi—also congratulated Trump. Some, like Jordan's King Abdullah II, said they hoped Trump's second term would usher in an era of "regional and global peace and stability for all."
However, while Trump's first term saw the signing of the historic Abraham Accords that nominally normalized relations between Israel and some of its former Arab enemies, he also presided over what one of his former defense secretaries called a "war of annihilation" that left thousands of civilians dead and cities in ruins in Syria and Iraq.
Former right-wing leaders also cheered Trump's win. Disgraced former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—who like Trump incited an insurrection following his last election loss, but unlike Trump was slapped with an eight-year electoral ban over it—said Tuesday's result represents "the triumph of the people's will over the arrogant designs of an elite who disdain our values, beliefs, and traditions."
"This triumph is historic," Bolsonaro—sometimes called the "Trump of the Tropics"—continued. "Its impact will resonate across the globe... empowering the rise of the right and conservative movements in countless other nations."
On the flip side, progressive leaders around the world vowed to fight fascism—even as they shuddered at the specter of what horrors may come in Trump's second term.
"We are a global movement, made up of all faiths and backgrounds, united in our opposition to racism and hatred," said leftist U.K. lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn. "We will never abandon hope in a more equal, sustainable, and peaceful world."
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World Braces for Outcome of Trump-Harris Election
From Palestine to Ukraine to the southern U.S. border, people expressed fears of how a Donald Trump victory could adversely affect them.
Nov 05, 2024
People, governments, and rights groups around the world watched with bated breath as Americans headed to the polls Tuesday to elect a new president in a tight contest whose results are fraught with implications on a wide range of issues, from the climate emergency and migration to support for Ukraine and international trade.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is facing off against former Republican President Donald Trump in a knife-edge race whose outcome may not be known until after Election Day.
In the Middle East, there are fears that a second Trump administration could be even worse for Palestinians, more than 160,000 of whom have been killed, wounded, or left missing by Israel's U.S.-backed assaults on Gaza and the West Bank.
While Harris has promised that she won't change President Joe Biden's "unwavering" support for Israel—which includes approving tens of billions of dollars worth of military aid and diplomatic cover like multiple vetoes of United Nations cease-fire resolutions—Trump has encouraged Israel, which is on trial for alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice, to "finish what they started" and "get it over with fast."
Ammar Joudeh, a resident of the heavily bombed Jabalia refugee camp in obliterated northern Gaza,
toldAl Jazeera Monday: "If Trump wins, disaster has befallen us. Trump's presidency was disastrous for the Palestinian cause. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and normalization with Arab countries increased."
"If Trump wins, we'll be displaced to the Sinai Peninsula [in Egypt]," he added. "Israel has already enacted much of Trump's plan to displace us from northern Gaza. If Trump takes office again, he'll finish the plan."
Wafaa Abdel Rahman, who lives in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said that "as a Palestinian, the two options are worse than each other. It seems to us as Palestinians like choosing between the devil and Satan."
"If Trump wins, I believe that the war will be resolved in Israel's favor quickly and more violently," she added. "Trump policy is clear and known to us as Palestinians. However, Harris will complete what her successor started and adopt the same position as her party, and thus we will remain in a long-term war without a resolution. In both cases, the result is death for Gaza, but in the second case, it will be a slow and more painful death."
Meanwhile in Israel, recent polling shows Trump—who is so popular with Israel's right that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named a planned community in the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights after him—with over three times the support of Harris.
The big question in Iran is whether the winner of the U.S. election will pursue a path toward diplomacy or potential war. Tehran-based political analyst Diako Hosseini toldAl Jazeera on Tuesday that "pursuing diplomacy with Trump is much harder for Iran due to the assassination" of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, which was ordered by the former Republican president in January 2020.
"However, if a potential Harris administration is willing, Iran would not have any major obstacles for direct bilateral talks," he added. "Nevertheless, Iran is well and realistically aware that regardless of who takes over the White House as president, diplomacy with Washington is now considerably much more difficult than any other time."
Migrants and asylum-seekers have expressed alarm over Trump's plan for even tougher bans, border closures, and mass deportations than occurred during his first term. Trump has vowed to carry out "the largest deportation operation in American history" and reinstate first-term policies targeting asylum-seekers and people from Muslim-majority nations.
Flor Ramirez, a community navigator at the advocacy group Arise Chicago, toldSouth Side Weekly Monday that migrants are once again experiencing the "collective fear" they felt during Trump's first term.
"It was a fear that cut through our family. I had to talk to my bishop, to tell him that if I got deported, if I could please leave him a notarized letter that he would take care of my children, because my biggest fear at that time was that my children... would be separated," she said.
In Asia and Europe, the prospect of crippling tariffs imposed by Trump is stoking fear of negative economic implications, including a weakened euro.
"Tariffs will seriously dampen the [European Union's] economic growth," Zach Meyers, assistant director of the Center for European Reform, toldFortune on Sunday.
Ukrainians and their backers are also bracing for the possibility that a President Trump would end or dramatically cut aid to Ukraine, which is fighting to defend itself against a nearly three-year Russian invasion and the occupation. Harris supports continued aid to Ukraine. Trump says he will prioritize ending the war quickly—an objective he
claims he could achieve "in 24 hours."
Far-right Hungarian President Viktor Orbán and Trump, who are mutual admirers, said Sunday that Europe will have to rethink its support for Ukraine if the Republican wins, as the continent "will not be able to bear the burdens of the war alone." Orbán opposes military aid to Ukraine.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance—who is also a U.S. senator from Ohio—has proposed letting Russia keep the Ukrainian territory it has occupied and establishing a "heavily fortified" demilitarized buffer zone along the war's front line. Ukraine would be forced to accept neutrality under the plan.
Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin—who favored Trump in the 2016 contest against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton—Harris' campaign said the proposed "Trump-Vance-Putin plan for Ukraine is a surrender plan."
"Trump won't say he wants Ukraine to win because he's rooting for Vladimir Putin," a Harris campaign spokesperson said in September."
While some Ukrainians say they want Trump to win because they believe he could help end a war of attrition that's claimed at least tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives, others fear the implications of a possible end or precipitous reduction of U.S. aid.
In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, one produce vendor with relatives living under Russian occupation, recently toldCBS News that "for us, it's a matter of survival."
"We are really strong. We will hold on," she said. "We hope America will keep helping us, and not abandon us."
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Humiliated French Far Right Helps 'Patriots for Europe' Become Major Parliamentary Bloc
"What do neo-Nazis, fascists, and sycophantic authoritarian bootlickers look like in the European Parliament? This," said one Irish analyst.
Jul 08, 2024
Dozens of members of French legislator Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally—which suffered a crushing defeat at the polls on Sunday—are joining forces with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to form what will be the third-largest bloc in the European Parliament.
Politicoreported Monday that 30 members of Le Pen's National Rally (RN) who belonged to the far-right Identity and Democracy bloc are joining Patriots for Europe, which was formed in June by conservative lawmakers including European Parliament members (MEPs) from Orbán's ruling Fidesz party.
Jordan Bardella—the 28-year-old RN MEP who was widely believed to be the frontrunner for French prime minister before his party's thrashing in a national election on Sunday—will serve as the Patriots for Europe's leader in Strasbourg. Patriots for Europe has 84 MEPs representing 12 European Union member states.
"As patriotic forces, we are going to work together in order to retake our institutions and reorient policies to serve our nations and peoples," Bardella said in a statement Monday.
As Euronewsreported:
Other national [Patriots for Europe] delegations include Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ), Spain's far-right Vox, and the Dutch nationalist PVV, each contributing six MEPs. The group also includes three lawmakers from Belgium's Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang, two from Portugal's Chega!, two from Czechia's Oath and Motorists, two from Greece's Voice of Reason, one from Latvia First party, and one from the Danish People's Party.
Renew Europe, a centrist bloc with 76 European Parliament members, reacted to the new far-right alliance in a social media post asserting that "Patriots for Europe are 'patriots' in name only."
"The far right have rebranded. But their mission is the same, to destroy values," Renew Europe added. "Shame on them for supporting the narratives of Europe's enemies."
Commenting on a photo of Patriots for Europe MEPs posted on social media, Irish defense and security analyst Andy Scollick said: "What do neo-Nazis, fascists, and sycophantic authoritarian bootlickers look like in the European Parliament? This."
"Nothing patriotic about them: They would see Europe under the Russian yoke if they got their way," he added. "#PatriotsforEurope = #TraitorsforEurope."
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