Europe's far-right divided over Russia as Salvini stages pre-election rally in Milan

[JonLP24]

Italy’s deputy leader gathers nationalists in Milan but pro-Russia stance leaves allies split

Shaun Walker Central and eastern Europe correspondent

Fri 17 May 2019 00.00 EDT

On Saturday, Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, will gather nationalists from across Europe for a rally in Milan’s Piazza Duomo, in an attempt to show he can unite the continent’s far-right forces before next week’s European elections.

'Not a statesman': Matteo Salvini – the Zelig of Italian politics

There has been an increase of nativist, populist parties in many parts of Europe in recent years. From the villages of Normandy to the Hungarian plains, they go into the elections with similar messages of national identities under threat, the dangers of migration and a reassertion of national sovereignty.

However, there remains one issue on which the continent’s rightwing populists are split: Russia.

For many nationalist and far-right parties, support for Russia is a natural side-effect of anti-Americanism and anti-EU sentiment. Many also like the Kremlin’s focus on traditional values and wrongly believe the president, Vladimir Putin, to be a nativist ethno-nationalist leader. There are also suggestions of covert Russian support or funding for far-right parties.

Salvini has praised Putin and even worn a Putin T-shirt during a session of the European parliament. Marine Le Pen, who has signed her National Rally party up to Salvini’s bloc, said Russia’s annexation of Crimea was legitimate. Her party has taken a loan from a Russian bank. Shortly before presidential elections in France in 2017, she met Putin in the Kremlin.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/17/europes-far-right-divided-over-russia-as-salvini-stages-pre-election-rally-in-milan?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_b-gdnnews&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1558120994

[suffragette]

1. See Salvini; think Bannon. For all the nationalist talk,

Salvini and the far right are gobbling up the money and policy points that Bannon and his financiers are feeding them. And of course Russia is deep in it, too.

It's bizarre that the far right nationalists are so deeply engaged in what is clearly a global effort to push key governments in the world to shared extremist positions. But that is the case.