Is Conservatism Making Enough of a Comeback In Europe?

America needs strong allies that can stand on their own.

Over the weekend I was invited by a new group, the EU-US Forum, to attend their inaugural symposium weekend in Rome where American conservatives and conservative European leaders gathered and exchanged ideas and strategies. The thought — reality, really — is that while garbage policies like open borders, the green cult, and more originated in Europe, the American left has fast weaponized them to remake the U.S. into an open borders fecal storm reliant upon geopolitical foes for energy, such as the European Union member states.

The leaders assembled were not fans of the EU and have been zealously persecuted by their own governments for speaking in defense of their citizens’s sovereignty and defense of their national borders. For instance, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport minister, Matteo Salvini, was politically charged with a roster of crimes because he refused entry to a ship loaded with illegal immigrants. In a fashion similar to Trump’s New York penalties, Italian leftists look to penalize Salvini into oblivion for opposing open borders.

While conservative leaders from Portugal, Austria, and France all spoke at a Saturday afternoon event aimed at unifying conservative European leadership ahead of this summer’s EU elections, the force in the room was Italy, now the largest and most powerful conservative presence in the EU since the UK left in Brexit.

Because of this, strategies have shifted and the European left is desperately trying to neutralize their growing influence. Leftist European press likes to sell dumb Americans on the narrative that right-leaning in European countries is tantamount to the 40s socialism or fascism. Leaders who loathed those movements and their murderous icons are careful not to say “nationalism” when talking about defending their countries’s borders because evil, leftist ideology destroyed all meaning of the word. All of the “isms” are different sides of the same leftist ideological turd and they all result in the same sort of government and persecution. It’s what modern European conservatives want to avoid — and the left knows they must walk a fine line with messaging.

Never is this more obvious than with Salvini and Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. Their two parties, Lega and Fratelli d’Italia are part of the right-leaning coalition and my impression is that they give unintentional (or brilliantly orchestrated) “good cop, bad cop” vibes regarding executing policy. Whereas Meloni is more practical, Salvini is more ideological. Not that ideology isn’t practical, it’s just harder to effect within the EU, especially in a major election year, and especially when you’re trying to parlay influence into greater control within the organization. In some ways it’s brilliant: There is a benefit for Meloni from Salvini’s fiery indignation and populist messaging to keep the agenda pushed rightwards while Salvini needs Meloni to incrementally turn the ideology into real policy. The right-leaning coalition is still building momentum and support after historic wins. Until then, any sort of Italian Brexit seems off the table; dealing with the EU is their reality right now.

The European press is just as much a problem as our press. We think we suffer the indignity of yellow journalism here, but European anti-speech laws regulating opinion and recitation of basic fact make them even ghastlier. Salvini can oppose ships loaded with foreigners hellbent on illegally entering the country but then he’s accused of kidnapping by refusing to allow anyone to disembark. The existence of improperly defined and enforced “hate speech” laws lend a bureaucratic air of false validity to the yellow journalism’s accusations.

I’m going to dive a bit deeper on air than the 30k foot view here, but these are just a few reasons why every day Americans should care what’s happening across the pond — especially as ideological allies on these issues try to prevent further decay in Europe. It benefits them to see how we fight these battles in the U.S. and it benefits us to see a living timeline of how leftist policies mature.

It wasn’t lost on me while at dinner with these leaders discussing these issues on a rooftop overlooking the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Capitoline Hill, that the city in some respect serves today as a beautiful mausoleum for western civilization’s creation.

Quick note — for the record, the Saturday event was hosted by the ID Party and the EU-US Forum hosted me in Rome and at the Saturday evening dinner. I was not paid nor did I promise any certain coverage, just as I’ve never been paid for observing such events and have always retained strict independence. I’m proud that this has been my consistent policy for my entire career — even before I began as a professional broadcaster in 2008 and was just an activist. Also, while some have photos with politicians, I’ve never been that sort to snap selfies with any. I have some of the event and with attendees who are acquaintances on social media.

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