Former American border commander Greg Bovino walks into the parking lot of an event location in the Portuguese coastal town of Figueira da Foz around noon with far-right influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek. It’s drizzling.
Bovino – former boss of the American immigration police ICE, under whose responsibility brutal force was used against migrants and several civilians were shot dead – flew to Portugal at the invitation of the Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner for the so-called ‘remigration summit’, a meeting of far-right activists and politicians.
Here they discuss their desired plans for the departure of millions of people with a migrant background from Europe. In the original idea, this departure was voluntary, but a significant part of the movement now omits ‘voluntary’. Bovino is their great example.
The controversial meeting was supposed to take place this Saturday near Porto, but the organization ultimately ended up almost an hour and a half away next to a highway. “Yes, sorry,” says one of the organizers as he hugs two foreign visitors in the parking lot, “we had to look for a new location several times.” The visitors are brought from Porto by a handful of coaches. This location could be secured well, is the only thing the organization wants to say about it. Demonstrations against the meeting will take place in the center of Porto on Saturday. There was no official ban on the ‘remigration summit’.
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Bullying journalists
At the entrance the ‘mainstream’ press is separated from the ‘right’ press. Representatives of the last group are allowed to enter. The rest have to wait outside at two party tents, where security guards keep an eye on everything and the organization sets up an iPad with a live stream of the speeches. The ‘mainstream media’ may make requests for conversations with far-right speakers and guests. If they feel like it, they will come by.
Bovino and Vlaardingenbroek walk into the parking lot to talk. Bovino – known for his long coats and arm gestures that evoked Nazi associations – now wears a black jacket with a light blue blouse underneath. He thanks the press for being there. “You’re all doing a fantastic job being here. With your attention, this movement can grow in Europe.” A little later, he promises those present during his speech that he will return in his infamous trench coat, when remigration in Europe has started, he says.
The organizers want attention, but they don’t want anything from the press. And they show that too. Every now and then a drone flies over the parking lot. The driver then launches the thing right between a CNN Portugal reporter and his camera. Or he pretends to attack a photographer from Denmark with the device. Is this the ‘fake news’, asks a woman from the entourage of the American Stefano Forte, leader of the Young Republicans New York, before he plays his message in a staccato manner.
The security is not watertight. NRC manages to get in anyway. One editor is recognized as press and put in the parking lot. The other person can enter with his purchased ticket.
Afonso Gonçalves of the far-right action group Reconquista (Reconquest)
Photo Elena Fernández
There, Portuguese leader Afonso Gonçalves, of the far-right action group Reconquista (Reconquest), begins to incite the crowd. “Remigration, remigration, remigration,” chant the approximately five hundred attendees, mostly men.
Group leader Lidewij de Vos of Forum for Democracy, her partner and former Hague councilor Massimo Etalle and party chairman Thierry Baudet are also present. Just like activists from the extreme right-wing Dutch action groups Voorpost, Pegida and White Lives Matter. Jan van der K. from the latter club is in the audience, a well-known extremist who has been convicted of anti-Semitism. During the breaks, these activists chat with Baudet and Raisa Blommestijn, presenter of broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland, who accompanies Eva Vlaardingerbroek.
Strengthening ideological ties
The participants come from different European countries and know each other well. There are well-known Italian extremists, Belgians, Germans, Swiss, Portuguese. But a large delegation from the United States has also come from the Young Republicans, to strengthen ties with their ideological allies.
On the lawn outside, Forte from the New York chapter tells us that about twenty young Republicans have already come to Porto from New York alone. “We have a lot of contact with this movement in Europe. With people from the AfD, people from Orbán in Hungary and here in Portugal, we were shown around parliament by representatives from Chega (a radical right-wing Portuguese party, ed.),” says Forte.
He believes that immigration makes European countries “unstable” and says the US needs strong European allies. Making those connections, including overseas, is the main goal of the meeting. And where Forum for Democracy wanted to remain in the shadows at the ‘summit’ last year, the party is now openly present.
At the beginning of this year, Forte was also a speaker at a meeting of nationalists in Pretoria, South Africa, where European extremists were again present. He doesn’t want to say who pays for all the flying back and forth of all those young Republicans. “Not your business,” he says to the NRC reporter outside in the parking lot. In mid-May, Vlaardingerbroek and Blommestijn met in Rome with the leadership of the Heritage Foundation, the influential and wealthy think tank behind the Trump movement.
Lidewij de Vos speaks
Many speeches follow inside the hall, one more extreme than the other. The Portuguese Gonçalves says that in his view two million immigrants with a Portuguese passport will never become real Portuguese. Afterwards, German regional politician Lena Kotré of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) claims that children nowadays increasingly want to become police officers in order to “deport foreigners”.
Lidewij de Vos receives applause when she talks about the “baby in my belly”, after a previous speaker already advocated fathering more descendants. De Vos says she will fight for her child’s future by fighting for “voluntary remigration”. For other speakers, this voluntariness is not incorporated into the speech.
The meeting continues until the evening. Afterwards there will be a dinner for the speakers, guests and participants who have paid 250 euros for it. The rest is dropped off again by bus in Porto.
