This Monday, the Senate hosted one of the highest-level meetings of the Christian extreme right at a global level. The Political Network of Values (PNfV), an international organization of politicians who seek to impose the ultra agenda, wanted to organize its V Transatlantic Summit in Madrid. From the lectern of the old plenary hall of the Upper House – and thanks to the endorsement of the PP – almost fifty speakers were building through their speeches their vision of the world, which they consider to be in crisis due to the advance of feminism, human rights LGTBI or what they call “the culture of death”, that is, abortion and euthanasia. And, no less important, his words were also designing his “future” project.
This ultra movement, boosted by victories such as that of Donald Trump or Javier Milei, forms an authentic network of organizations and politicians from different countries that share strategies and ideas. Those who landed in Madrid are some of the most important representatives of the reactionary universe, which brought together considered great figures such as the former Minister of the Interior with José María Aznar, Jaime Mayor Oreja, or the Chilean far-right José Antonio Kast with figures from Vox, congressmen Americans, members of the Argentine Government and representatives of Orbán’s Hungary or Meloni’s Italy.
The former PP minister’s words about “the truth of creation versus the story of evolution” transcended, but Greater Ear He has been repeating his ideas about “social disorder” and the “loss of Christian foundations” for years in the forums in which he participates. The former MEP is honorary president of the PNfV, but also a promoter of the European Federation one of us, of the Valores y Sociedad foundation and NEOS, a platform that defines abortion and euthanasia as “spearheads of the project of destruction” of “civilization.” The vice president is the former Basque leader of the PP María San Gil, who although she was not a speaker in the Senate, was among the attendees.
Another highlight is José Antonio Kastuntil now president of the PNfV, which will be in the hands of Stephen Bartulica, MEP of the Croatian ultranationalist Movement for the Fatherland. Kast, who has sometimes vindicated Augusto Pinochet, announced precisely at the summit that he is leaving office to run in the 2025 elections in Chile.
Three European families and a common goal
The European panelists are divided into three families: the Reformists and Conservatives (ERC), the European People’s Party (EPP) and Patriots for Europe. The first belongs to the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) – which was in power for 15 years until the triumph of Donald Tusk – or the Fratelli d’Italia of Giorgia Meloni. From there, the Italian MEP Paolo Inselvini and the national MP Ylenja Lucaselli landed in Madrid, as well as Nicolás Bay, from Identité-Libertés, the new party of Marion Maréchal, the niece of Marine Le Pen. Also the Romanian Serban-Dimitrie Sturdza, who assured that marriage “belongs exclusively to heterosexuality.”
From parties included in the EPP came the Austrian deputy Gudrun Kugler, who left one of the anti-immigration messages of the day at the summit by pointing out that accepting it “causes problems.” Of the formations that make up the European Patriots, those of Le Pen, the Hungarians of Fidesz, the party of ultra-Hungarian Viktor Orban, stand out: Kinga Gal, vice president of the formation and Márton Ugrósdy, member of the Government. They are joined by voices from Hungarian organizations in the same orbit such as Péter Törcsi, from the Center for Fundamental Rights, whose motto is “God, Homeland, Family” and has been based in the capital since March.
Vox also belongs to the Patriots and, of course, sent spokespersons to the summit. Its general secretary Ignacio Garriga spoke of the “cultural war” as an “obligation” in the face of the “culture of death” and gave wings to the replacement theory by stating that there are those who “prefer replacement policies to promoting birth rates.” ”. MEP Margarita de la Pisa and Senator Fernando Carbonell were also speakers. Among the public, the Spanish extreme right was represented: there was the former vice president of Castilla y León, Juan García Gallardo, and several councilors such as Carla Toscano, from Madrid, or Liberto Senderos, from Barcelona.
In this conglomerate of groups there is also the European Center for Law and Justicewhich focuses its activity on strategic litigation and the lobby in the European Parliament to get initiatives related to sexual and reproductive rights rejected. Gregor Puppinck, one of the most active figures of the anti-gay marriage movement in France, is its director and also spoke in the Senate. Standing out alongside him were Jerzy Kwaśniewski, from Ordo Iuris, who in Poland played a relevant role in promoting initiatives to ban abortion, sexual education and create ‘LGBTI-free zones’, and Krzysztof Szczuck, former Polish minister.
VOX serves as a conduit for Hungarian influence in Spain
For Neil Datta, executive director of the European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF), which has been monitoring the activity of these groups for years, this confluence of actors from different families has been “something specific” to the Network summit. Values Policy. “They do not agree on many things, such as their positions regarding Putin’s Russia, for example, but they are exploring ways to collaborate to achieve policies that undermine human rights in matters of sexuality, reproduction and LGTBI,” says the expert. author of a report that quantified how the financing of these actors has increased in ten years.
It does not go unnoticed by Datta that, after passing through Budapest or New York, the PNfV has chosen Madrid as the setting for this meeting and calls for “not to underestimate the expansion of Hungarian soft diplomacy”: the network “is registered in Budapest and receives funding of the Hungarian Government”, which together with issues such as Vox’s financing of the Hungarian bank MBH or the election of Santiago Abascal as president of the Patriots “suggest that Vox serves as a conduit for influence Hungarian in Spain.”
Spain and the United States
Along with the members of the far-right formation, the summit also featured other prominent Spanish figures, among them, the senior official of the Government of Cantabria and former senator of the PP Javier Puente, who defended “life from conception to natural death.” ” and is part of the advisory council of the PNfV. Also Carmen Fernández de la Cigoña, Director of the CEU Institute for Family Studies and at the same time secretary of “defense of life” of NEOS, Mayor Oreja’s platform, of which María Calvo is also a member. This, in turn, is a member of Red Madre, one of the most active entities against abortion in Spain, and defended an applauded essentialist discourse of motherhood and the family formed by a man and a woman.
This, that of the traditional family, is one of the most present narratives and whose “defense” a good part of the speakers who came from the United States are dedicated to. Among them were several active members of pro-Donald Trump politics and members of lobbies such as the Heritage Foundation, one of the laboratories of ideas with the most impact of American ultra-conservatism, of which Jay Richards and Grace Melton were in Madrid. Two key figures shared the meeting with them: Brian Brown, president of the International Organization for the Family, and Sharon Slater, president of Family Watch.
The first is a prominent activist against equal marriage and is on the board of CitizenGo, the international platform of the Spanish company HazteOír –by Ignacio Arsuaga–. Slater, for his part, chairs an organization that supports “natural marriage between a man and a woman,” assures that “school programs sexualize children” and goes so far as to affirm that sexual relations outside of marriage “generally bring negative consequences.” ”. Slater expressed himself along these lines in the Senate and pointed out three enemies of today’s society: abortion, the LGTBI “agenda” and sexual education.
Milei’s envoys
From Africa, the Ugandan representative, Lucy Akello, stands out, very belligerent in her homophobic positions. And from South America, in addition to José Antonio Kast, there are politicians such as the Colombian senator Karina Espinosa, who defined abortion as “murder of innocents”, the Brazilian senator Eduardo Girão or those sent by Milei’s Argentina: Nahuel Sotelo, secretary of State for Worship and Civilization of his Government and Nicolás Mayoraz, deputy of La Libertad Avanza. Mayoraz filled his speech with references to Milei’s victory, a result that “emboldens us, gives us strength, gives us energy,” he acknowledged.
And “what is the recipe?” he asked in the form of a question. He then gave an example: Milei “confronted” the public universities, which he accused of “having been hostages of progress and centers of ideological indoctrination for the last 30 years,” he stated in line with the general discourse of these sectors. , which in Spain is even replicated by the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, even pointing out schools and institutes.
“Build your own universe”
This questioning of almost everything – from science to international institutions such as the UN or WHO, governments, educational centers or the media – is the starting point of the corpus of ideas displayed during the almost 12 hours of interventions in the Upper House. And in the face of this West “in crisis” due to the “loss of foundations and values”, those who defend this narrative try to build through their speeches a world based on “the Christian natural order” and on words like freedom, family, God, life or common sense.
“They present a very well thought out and refined vision of ultra-conservative and archaic ideas. Sometimes their narratives may be acceptable at first glance, but behind them there is a discourse. For example, by freedom what they mean is that they want to have the right, among other things, not to accept policies against discrimination against LGTBI people or those that guarantee women’s right to contraception or abortion,” summarizes Datta.
For the director of the EPF, it is significant how these rhetorics propose an alternative to that supposedly “threatened” society that is nothing more than “building its own universe” in the face of “scientific evidence and legal frameworks based on human rights,” he argues in reference. also to the creationism of Mayor Oreja. “Universities and schools are obliged to implement evidence, for example in relation to sex education or contraception, but this approach does not conform to their religiously inspired positions.” There, Datta continues, is the trap: “That is why they are accused of indoctrination and their only option is to withdraw from reality and promote their points of view without external challenges: neither science nor medicine nor people with different opinions nor confrontation. with the consequences of their ideas that are none other than a deterioration in health and the undermining of human rights.”
#Mayor #Oreja #European #ultras #proTrump #lobbies #names #Senate #antiabortion #summit
