EU’s right calls for new ‘Reconquista’ against ‘Islamist advance’
Right-wing leaders from across Europe have called for a new “Reconquista” to defend the continent’s traditional values and cultural identity while criticizing the EU’s migration policies.
On Saturday, the Patriots for Europe group, the third-largest political bloc in the EU parliament, gathered in Madrid for its first high-profile rally since the summer elections. Attendees included Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s conservative Vox party; Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban; Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally party; and other high-profile conservative and right-wing leaders.
The event was held under the slogan “Make Europe Great Again,” an explicit nod to US President Donald Trump’s campaign motto. The conference centered on the theme of battling Islam, EU bureaucracy, globalism and left-wing “woke policies” and diversity.
The term “Reconquista” echoed throughout the event, with Abascal comparing today’s political struggles to the centuries-long campaign by Christian kingdoms to free the territory of modern Spain from Muslim rule in the Middle Ages.
“We Spaniards are proud to be known for that extraordinary feat of our ancestors. We are ready to be that again,” Abascal noted. “We are ready to be that wall of Europe once again in the face of Islamist advance,” he said, vowing to fight against “global dictatorship,” including the one imposed from Brussels.
The idea of Reconquista was also mentioned by Martin Helme, the leader of Estonia’s Conservative People’s Party. “For Europe to be great again, we need to have a new Reconquista,” he said while accusing globalist elites of trying to “damage our Christian civilization and replace it with their sick satanic utopia.”
Orban, a consistent opponent of the EU’s lenient approach to migration, also weighed in, suggesting that “the replacement of the population of Europe is not a conspiracy theory, it is pure practice.”
The Hungarian leader also said that liberal ideology had suffered a major defeat due to Trump’s victory in the US. “The Trump tornado, has changed the world in just a couple of weeks. An era has ended,” he said. The sentiment was echoed by Le Pen, who also called for “renaissance of Europe” which she said could be achieved by establishing dialogue among different right-wing forces.
Right-wing parties across the EU have grown in popularity over the past decade, with their electoral gains fueled by public discontent over rising immigration, especially from Africa and the Middle East, as well as economic instability.
