The work done by former White House chief strategist Mr. Steve Bannon seems to have paid off for Eurosceptic parties as the latest polls indicate they could be looking at a swoop in next year’s European elections.
Mr Bannon, who’s held meetings with the leaders of France’s National Front, Germany’s AfD, Italy’s Lega Nord and the Five-Star-Movement and the UK’s UKIP earlier this year, wants to counter the influence of Mr George Soros on the European continent by grouping together a rightwing alternative to Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundation (an NGO that has given away some $32bn to largely liberal causes ever since its creation in, of all years, 1984).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/UdUXCjtMF3">https://t.co/UdUXCjtMF3</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Czechia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Czechia</a> Babis says migration concerns will dominate EU elections.<br>“In my view, there will be a substantial shift after the European elections. There is a silent majority which will vote in an anti-migration way.”<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/V4?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#V4</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Visegrad?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Visegrad</a> <a href="https://t.co/n4T8dUnLUD">pic.twitter.com/n4T8dUnLUD</a></p>— V4 Report (@bill_ravotti) <a href="https://twitter.com/bill_ravotti/status/1025202666492911616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
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At the time of the first meeting, when informing the press of his plans to ‘unite the right’ in Europe, Mr. Bannon stated: “Soros is brilliant. He’s evil, but he’s brilliant.”
There are however some smaller political parties that do not share all of Mr. Bannon’s views. His moral view of capitalism as a vehicle for Judeo-Christian values did not bode well for the Danish People’s party and his US-centric foreign policy vision will tick off some near the Mediterranean.
Related coverage: <a href="https://thegoldwater.com/news/26913-Steve-Bannon-I-Do-Not-Think-Mueller-Should-Be-Fired-Video"> Bannon Does Not Think Mueller Should Be Fired</a>.
A Reuters poll indicated however that enthusiasm on the right is great to go out and vote in May 2019 for European elections.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EUelections2019?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EUelections2019</a> 🇪🇺 Great initiative! „Because when everybody votes, everybody wins“ <a href="https://twitter.com/EU_Commission?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EU_Commission</a> . Click on the button to keep updated about relevant information about the European Elections campaign <a href="https://t.co/XQ2fD2s05E">https://t.co/XQ2fD2s05E</a> <a href="https://t.co/pHwp9sTyYc">pic.twitter.com/pHwp9sTyYc</a></p>— Attila Gerhäuser (@GerhaeuserVCI) <a href="https://twitter.com/GerhaeuserVCI/status/1025013689970319360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
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At the moment, if polls hold where they are at, Eurosceptic parties are set to expand their strength in the European Parliament by over 60 percent.
The EU Commission, realizing the unity on its right and seeing the rise of populist parties in various member states, was therefore quick to announce new measures aimed at ‘tackling fake news and voter manipulation.’
Related coverage: <a href="https://thegoldwater.com/news/31149-Steve-Bannon-Trump-Feels-Misled-Over-Brexit-Video">Steve Bannon Says Trump Feels Misled Over Brexit</a>.
Ms. Vera Jourová, the justice commissioner, announced an EU-wide initiative to combat voter manipulation through social media, stating: “I’d like to focus further on better protecting elections in the light of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. Organising elections is fully in the hands of member states, but if only one country’s elections are at risk of being manipulated, this has an impact on our whole union.”
“We need to improve our cooperation on such topics at European level. We need to tackle the online challenges to elections head-on. Pressing issues such as political advertising online, transparency, equal access to media online and data protection cannot and should not be considered in isolation. We’ll come up with a policy paper or recommendations in the autumn.”
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Twitter: #STAYDANGEROUS #KAG #QAnon #MAGA #MacMiller #Drake
In other words, the despots are going to rig the elections to keep populist parties OUT? Sounds like it.