KOBLENZ, Germany: European nationalist leaders came together Saturday in a show of strength at the start of a year of big election tests, celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president and declaring themselves a realistic alternative to the continent’s governments.
Right-wing populist leaders from France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and elsewhere strode confidently into the Koblenz congress hall on the banks of the Rhine River ahead of a flag-waving escort, setting the tone for a gathering whose mood was buoyed by Trump’s swearing-in. The European parties hope for similar success in tapping anti-establishment and protectionist sentiment in elections this year.
“I believe we are witnessing historic times,” Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders told reporters. “The world is changing. America is changing. Europe is changing. And the people start getting in charge again.”
Wilders, speaking in English, declared that “the genie will not go back into the bottle again, whether you like it or not.”
The Netherlands will provide the next major test for populist parties’ support. Wilders’ Party of Freedom could win the largest percentage of votes in the Dutch parliamentary election on March 15, even though it is shunned by other parties and unlikely to get a share of power.
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front, is among the top contenders in France’s April-May presidential vote. In September, Frauke Petry’s 4-year-old Alternative for Germany party hopes to enter the German parliament in a national election, riding sentiment against German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming policy toward refugees. Other German parties say they won’t work with the anti-immigrant group.
Those at the Koblenz conference Saturday are part of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament, which was launched in 2015. The gathering also featured Matteo Salvini of Italy’s anti-migrant Northern League and Harald Vilimsky, the general secretary of Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party, which last year narrowly failed to win the country’s presidency.
Trump “is a winner, we are winners: Frauke Petry, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, all of us here are winners,” Vilimsky told an audience of around 1,000.
Speakers also denounced “political Islam” and Europe’s common currency, the euro, which Salvini labeled “a failed, criminal experiment.”
Le Pen reveled in Trump taking power in the U.S., months after Britain voted to leave the 28-nation European Union in a referendum that she hopes to emulate.
“2016 was the year when the Anglo-Saxon world woke up. And 2017, I am sure, will be the year of the awakening of the people of continental Europe,” she said.
She denounced the EU as “a force of sterilization” and assailed Merkel — whose name was booed loudly — for allowing in large numbers of asylum seekers last year.
Le Pen praised Trump for what she said was a clear position on Europe: “He will not support a system of oppression of the people.
“We are experiencing the end of one world and the birth of another,” she said. “We are experiencing the return of nation-states.”
Petry said, “Just as Donald Trump in America shows the way out of a dead end, with new prospects — including for [resolving] international conflicts — we want to do that in the coming months and years for Europe.”
Some 5,000 demonstrators gathered outside the congress center in Koblenz, singing the European anthem Ode to Joy.
