In Milan, the “patriots” wanted to flex their muscles, but ended up like a meeting of orphans: more melancholy than vehemence. The date of this Saturday’s call by the European far-right had been conceived with a slogan, “remigration,” the flagship concept of the continent’s new far-right, which united all populist right-wing parties, members of the group in Parliament promoted by Viktor Orbán, who nevertheless did not appear in Milan, and inspired by that Donald Trump who, during hours of demonstrations and speeches, was not cited even once, beyond allusions perceptible only to journalists and embassy analysts.
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Nor is the chosen location accidental: Milan, Duomo square, in front of the cathedral, “under the Madonnina” —the golden statue of the Virgin that crowns the Duomo—, the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, emphasized days ago, to insist on the identitarian, and openly anti-Islamic, nature of the event, titled “Without Fear.” “Christian Europe, not Muslim” was one of the slogans chanted in the march, along with insults to Ursula von der Leyen and banners against Mercosur, among Italian and Lombard flags. “Owners in our own home,” read the posters, rescuing a slogan that the Northern League used against Rome and which today, in a nationalist key, redefines “home” as Italy, or even Europe, Christian of course.
“The international network of the populist right was sustained in Budapest and Rome; now one has fallen and the other is changing”
The world is changing at a dizzying speed. On Sunday night, two of its engines failed almost simultaneously: Viktor Orbán lost the elections in Hungary after 16 years of absolute power and Donald Trump insulted the Pope, making the MAGA universe openly incompatible with that of European populists, including Giorgia Meloni’s more institutional right.
The demonstration of the Patriots, the group founded by Orbán and Marine Le Pen, which Vox has also joined, thus took on a nostalgic air. The ritual of attacks on Islam was staged again, but without the brilliance of other times. Some guests dropped out, starting with Orbán himself and Santiago Abascal, who limited himself to a brief video. On stage followed the leader of the Rassemblement National, Jordan Bardella, who delivered his speech in Italian —including an “addio Macron” (goodbye Macron)—, the Dutchman Geert Wilders, leader of the PVV, and the Greek Afroditī Latinopoulou, founder of the Foní Logikís (Voice of Reason) party, which emerged after the dissolution of Golden Dawn and inherited its xenophobic rhetoric.
The proposal
League leader Matteo Salvini asks Europe to buy Russian gas again
And, of course, the host Matteo Salvini, who rallied his reduced crowd, asking to reopen gas trade with Russia and harshly attacking Brussels, “slave to finance and the millionaire left.” Then, as proof of the group’s complicated moment, he added: “The Patriots movement is a family; when someone goes through a difficult time, the hands of thousands of friends reach out to comfort them. A hug to our friend Viktor Orbán.”
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“The international call of the far-right was based on two capitals, Budapest and Rome —explains to La Vanguardia Flavia Perina, former director of Il Secolo d’Italia, a post-fascist right-wing newspaper, and former parliamentarian critical of Berlusconi—, but Orbán is no longer there and Meloni visibly embraces Macron.”
According to Perina, “it is shown that, without ties to the MAGA world, very little remains: opposition parties, except for the League, with parliamentary representation but far from power. Trumpism has meant not only a political line, but also economic support for foundations, and breaking that link has a cost.”
Protest against the far-right takes to the streets of Milan in three parallel marches
Duomo square was not full. And yet, in Milan, tension was high: against the Patriots, three different demonstrations were organized this Saturday, called by the left and even a concentration in favor of integration in which leaders of Forza Italia, government partners of the League, participated. In the march of the most radical left-wing groups, some clashes occurred with the police, who prevented access to the far-right square. Tear gas, bottles thrown at officers, and some minor injuries. In these times, not even clashes leave a mark.
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