MILAN, April 18 — Far-right leaders from Europe gather in Milan today for a rally against irregular immigration and Brussels bureaucracy, the first since the electoral defeat of nationalist Viktor Orban in Hungary.
The Patriots for Europe party, the third-largest bloc in the European Parliament, has called on its supporters to meet at 1300 GMT in front of Milan’s Duomo cathedral.
Organiser Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s nationalist League party, has deemed that “symbol of Christianity” ideal for the event billed as “Without Fear — in Europe Masters in our Own Home!”
France’s Jordan Bardella and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders have confirmed their attendance following invitations by Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister in the coalition government of Giorgia Meloni.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has also been invited.
Spain, where the Vox party has made strong gains, has not yet announced a participant.
Nor has Hungary, where one of the co-founders of the Patriots, Orban, was voted from power after 16 years in a crushing election defeat to pro-EU opposition figure Peter Magyar.
Ahead of that election, the president of France’s National Rally, Marine Le Pen, went to Budapest to try and shore up Orban, stressing that 2027 was shaping up to be “absolutely fundamental” for the far right.
Major contests in France, Italy, Spain and Poland would give potential far-right winners “the means to radically change the course of the European Union from within”, she said.
Also today, progressives including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are set to gather in Barcelona.
‘Faces uncovered’
“Peace, work and security” will be the watchwords of the Milan rally, Salvini explained ahead of the rally.
“We will be numerous, colourful, peaceful, with our faces uncovered but determined,” he said.
Participants on stage are expected to talk up measures such as ending legal aid to migrants or imposing strict limits on family reunification policies.
In line with Meloni, the League has also called for the EU to soften budget deficit rules due to the energy crisis triggered by the Middle East war.
“These rules are unbearable with the wars currently under way … Some people in Brussels live on Planet Mars, and we’re going to bring them back down to Earth today, with good manners, of course,” Salvini said.
Farmers in tractors protesting free trade agreements, and motorcyclists opposed to traffic restrictions are to lead the way today for a short march from eastern Milan to the Duomo.
The far-right rally is also a show of force for the League in its stronghold of Lombardy and in Italy as a whole, at a time when it can count only on around 6 to 8 per cent of voting intentions, according to the latest polls.
The League’s popularity has been on a downward trajectory, scoring 17.35 per cent in the 2018 elections and 8.8 per cent in the last ones in 2022.
Salvini’s party is under pressure from the new “National Future” party founded by retired general Roberto Vannacci, who defected from the League in February and already has about 3 per cent of voting intentions.
Several counter events, including anti-fascist rallies, are planned for today in Milan, a centre-left metropolis in a strongly right-wing region.
Despite being the League’s coalition partner in Meloni’s government, Forza Italia is also planning an event for its Milan chapter, dedicated to the “social and civic engagement” of children of immigrants in Italy. — AFP
Europe’s far-right gathers in Milan seeking fresh momentum after Orbán defeat
