The Alliance Attacking Freedom - How Trump’s troops are attacking gender rights and underpinning the far right in Europe
The Alliance Attacking Freedom - How Trump’s troops are attacking gender rights and underpinning the far right in Europe
How Trump’s troops are attacking gender rights and underpinning the far right in Europe - the case of the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBT hate group fighting that has increased its spending in Europe dramatically in recent years. Their impact can be boosted after the European elections and ...
Money is pouring into Europe from ultraconservative US foundations. One of the biggest spenders is the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian right wing organization that has played a prominent part in rolling back gender, abortion, and LGBTQIA+ rights on both sides of the Atlantic. Its latest tax filing shows it has doubled its spending in Europe since 2018.
This unfolds in a context where we could see a new right wing majority in the European Parliament after the European elections on 9 June, that includes the far right, and in parallel we may see Donald Trump retake the US Presidency. Considering the work done by the Trump camp to unite the European far right – including by forging a close alliance with the Hungarian President Viktor Orbán – this is a dangerous prospect. A strengthened European far right also bolsters the Trump camp.
This goes beyond party politics. Groups such as the ADF have been working on the ground in member states to network and build up power to overturn rights won through decades of struggle. Currently, the foundations that support the ADF and similar organisations, are increasing their spending dramatically. That is likely to strengthen their impact.
I imagine the fact that all nationalists around the West suddenly felt that hating each other on nationalist grounds and instead just attacking the liberal democracy and the welfare states that created the societies that are worth living in is just a coincidence. It has certainly nothing to do with the Russian and Chinese spy networks constantly being unearthed and linked to these groups.
Don't you think that those influence and disinformation campaigns have always been around? In the past, they really only had to think about other nation-state agencies discovering them. These days, it seems as likely to be an academic conducting research or a hobbyist saying "Now that's weird...."