A right-wing rally was held in Madrid on Sunday which featured messages by the leading stars of Europe’s populist right — people like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Hungary’s Viktor Orban — sending support to Spain’s far-right Vox party and its leader, Santiago Abascal. But it was a 40-second video from Donald Trump that caused the biggest stir back in the good ol’ US of A (-lot of people who hate fascism).
Filmed on a plane after one of his recent lunatic hate rallies, Trump thanked the Vox party and Abascal for what he called the “great job” they do. Vox’s messaging includes zero tolerance for Catalan separatism, disdain for gender equality, diatribes against unauthorized immigration from Africa, and embracing both the “Reconquista” of medieval Spain from Islam as well as the legacy of Gen. Francisco Franco’s 20th-century fascist dictatorship. So, that’s white on brand for Trump to be endorsing.
The Vox party captured national attention in Spain in 2019 when it became the third-largest force in the country’s Parliament after an election that led to a national left-wing coalition that still holds power. Meloni’s recent rise to power in Italy, the bloc’s third-largest economy, could put national interests in that country first, like Hungary and Poland are doing. If this doesn’t sound worrisome, just exchange “Meloni” for “Mussolini,” because that’s her inspo. Meloni is pushing the fascist Italian version of Trump’s “America First” (or Germany’s “Final Solution,” if I’m not being blunt enough as to what’s happening in Europe right now.)
https://twitter.com/rulajebreal/status/1579178648979927040
Trump’s quickie message hit all of the right-wing dog whistles.
“We have to make sure that we protect our borders and do lots of very good conservative things,” Trump said.
“Spain is a great country and we want to keep it a great country. So congratulations to Vox for so many great messages you get out to the people of Spain and the people of the world.”
The crowd’s response seems less than enthusiastic than at, say, an Arizona hate rally, but it’s the response from home that actually matters here.