Europe
European right-wing parties follow Trump’s call to label Antifa a terrorist organization
The “rightward shift” in the US under the Donald Trump administration has begun to find support in two European states and various political parties.
After Trump announced last Thursday that he wanted to classify the loosely-known coalition “Antifa” as a “terrorist organization,” the Dutch parliament asked its own government to do the same.
On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also announced his intention to follow the US president’s lead. The same demands were voiced by the leaders of Belgium’s ruling party, the Reformist Movement (MR), and Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The Kirk assassination as a turning point in the US
The Trump administration has moved to suppress any criticism of conservative-right commentator Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on September 10.
The president had TV host Jimmy Kimmel fired for speaking about Kirk’s murder, escalating the threat of removing other “liberal” media figures from the media.
Trump is suing a growing number of media outlets that produce critical reporting, including influential publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, for billions of dollars in damages and wants to prohibit the publication of any investigation related to the Pentagon that the government has not approved.
This would make it impossible to write critical articles about the US armed forces.
Trump’s friends in Europe take action
Last week, for the first time, two EU countries openly adopted one of Trump’s initiatives and announced their intention to incorporate it into their own legislation.
The plan is to classify anti-fascist organizations, particularly the “Antifa” movement, as terrorist organizations.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday that he was “pleased” with Trump’s announced plan, adding, “The time has come in Hungary to classify organizations like Antifa as terrorist groups, following the American model.”
In the capital, Budapest, anti-fascist organizations demonstrate against the annual commemorative march organized by fascists to honor the war fought by the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS against the Red Army.
On Thursday, at the request of right-wing politician Geert Wilders (PVV), the Dutch parliament had asked the government to also classify Antifa as a “terrorist organization.”
This was achieved with the votes of the ruling VVD party, of which NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is a member.
AfD also imitates Trump
Calls to ban anti-fascist organizations, or at least hinder their activities, are also being heard in other EU countries.
In Austria, for example, the FPÖ’s “security spokesman” Gernot Darmann, referring to Trump’s initiative, said, “This leftist swamp”—‘Antifa’—“must be drained.”
In Belgium, the president of the ruling MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, called for the official dissolution of the “Antifa structure,” following Trump’s example.
Bouchez announced that his party would work toward this “at the government and parliamentary level” and openly accused Antifa of being “a structure that uses fascist methods.”
In Germany, AfD politicians are demanding that the anti-fascist movement be classified as “terrorist.” Members of the AfD in the European Parliament proposed this years ago as part of their parliamentary activities.
Now, for instance, AfD Member of the Federal Parliament Alexander Wolf stated on social media, “Donald Trump wants to take action against Antifa. … Very good!”
Wolf’s party colleague Dario Seifert also noted on social media that Trump’s plan “should be a model for Germany and Europe as well,” and said, “Classify Antifa as a terrorist group!”
AfD is the leading party in the polls
The AfD has entered a period where it is achieving record results in polls and is increasingly being discussed in coalition talks.
In a YouGov poll published on September 17, it surpassed the CDU/CSU for the first time, ranking first with 27% (CDU/CSU: 26%).
In an INSA poll published on September 20, the AfD (26%) was also ahead of the CDU and CSU (25%). The SPD lagged far behind at 15%.
In the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is currently polling at 39%, and the party’s state leader, Ulrich Siegmund, aims to form a single-party government after the state elections next September.
In local elections held a week ago in three major cities of the populous western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia—Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen, and Hagen—AfD candidates advanced to the second round of the mayoral elections to be held this Sunday.
The CDU may pull bricks from the “firewall” against the AfD
At the same time, discussions about the AfD’s potential inclusion in a ruling coalition, possibly even at the federal level, are intensifying.
The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (faz), which is close to the Union parties, reported that there are politicians in the CDU and CSU, including “leading” ones, who privately express the view that the AfD cannot be ignored in the long term, at least on organizational matters such as the distribution of committee chairmanships.
Two weeks ago, CDU federal executive board member Carina Hermann stated at an executive board meeting that if the SPD does not support desired social cuts, “other majorities” might be possible in the Bundestag.
Karl-Josef Laumann, the Social Affairs Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and a federal vice-chairman, did not respond with the usual cool statement that a majority relying on the AfD is unthinkable in the Union parties. Instead, Laumann implied he did not rule out this scenario, warning, “Many would leave [the party], and so would I.”
Incitement to violence across the Canal
The “rightward shift” in Europe is not solely born from Europe’s internal dynamics; the Trump administration and its political circle are also actively promoting it.
For example, Trump’s former advisor Elon Musk supported a march in London on September 13, attended by nearly 150,000 far-right individuals, with a video address.
In his speech, Musk not only called for the dissolution of parliament and a change of government in the United Kingdom but also claimed that with rising immigration, “violence is at the door.”
Musk said, “It’s up to you whether you resort to violence, but violence is at your door. You either fight back or you die, that’s the reality.”
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will announce a €15 billion initiative today, in collaboration with EU capitals and private investors, aimed at supporting the growth of European technology companies.
For decades, startups on the continent have struggled to raise the large-scale funding rounds necessary to scale on this side of the Atlantic, frequently turning to US investors or relocating abroad as they expand.
“We are catching up. Now we need to accelerate,” EIB President Nadia Calviño said.
Under the existing European Tech Champions Initiative, the EIB had already pooled resources with six EU governments to establish funds that invest in high-growth companies across the EU.
Calviño described the initiative as “very successful,” noting that it has supported 12 European “unicorn” companies valued at over $1 billion, including the German artificial intelligence translation firm DeepL.
The bank is now expanding the program with a new phase nearly four times the size of the original.
Twenty-five EU governments, alongside private investors such as Santander and Danske Bank, are expected to participate in the program.
This initial €15 billion aims to mobilize up to €80 billion in total investment. Calviño stated that this estimate is based on the multiplier effects achieved under previous programs.
As part of these efforts, the EIB also aims to attract European pension funds, which manage immense pools of capital but have historically allocated fewer resources to technology investments compared to their US counterparts.
In addition to the new funding, Calviño noted that the EIB will create a platform providing a single point of access for existing European scale-up initiatives, including the European Commission’s Scaleup Europe Fund, France’s Tibi initiative, and Germany’s Win initiative.
Germany will purchase Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States and deploy them on German territory, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced on Thursday.
The move marks a shift away from planned US deployments and toward Germany establishing its own long-range strike capability.
Merz told lawmakers that he finalized the agreement with the US government during the NATO summit in Ankara, adding that the talks held on Tuesday and Wednesday had exceeded his expectations.
“While we close a critical strategic gap in our defense, we are also working to develop our own European systems and deploy them in Europe,” the Chancellor said.
According to German government sources, Washington committed in a letter of intent signed on Tuesday to approve Germany’s acquisition of Tomahawk missiles and their land-based Typhon launchers in August.
The number of missiles and launchers Germany plans to purchase was not disclosed because the information is classified.
The planned acquisition appears aligned with US President Donald Trump’s pressure on European allies to cover their own security costs, such as by purchasing US weapons.
The fate of the Tomahawk procurement had become uncertain after Trump announced in May that he would reduce the US military presence in Germany.
That development was seen as a cancellation of a plan made under the previous administration to deploy a US battalion equipped with long-range Tomahawk missiles to Germany.
That original plan was designed as a temporary solution to serve as a strong deterrent against Russia while Europeans developed their own versions of such weapons.
Germany produces its own cruise missile, the Taurus, but its range of approximately 311 miles is three to five times shorter than that of the Tomahawk missiles.
The General Court of the European Union has rejected Apple’s challenges against its “gatekeeper” status designated under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
With this ruling, the company’s designated status for the App Store and iOS remains valid, while its applications regarding iMessage were also rejected.
Apple had argued that the five separate App Stores it operates for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV should be evaluated as distinct, individual services.
The court rejected this argument, ruling that these stores serve a common purpose of connecting developers and users, regardless of the specific device.
The court also dismissed Apple’s defense that the DMA’s interoperability obligations violate its fundamental rights.
However, it did not conduct a substantive assessment on the legality of this obligation, stating that a direct legal link could not be established between the regulation in question and the determination of “gatekeeper” status.
Following the ruling, Apple argued that the obligations under the DMA “exceed the boundaries of legality and proportionality.” The company asserted that the new rules jeopardize the work it has carried out for years to ensure user privacy and security.
Apple retains the right to appeal the decision, though a company spokesperson did not comment on whether there are plans to do so.
Apple previously declared that DMA rules prevented the launch of the updated version of Siri in Europe, resulting in European users being unable to benefit from the service.
In force in the European Union since 2024, the DMA covers a total of 22 services and products belonging to Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft.
The regulation obliges these companies to share certain data with competitors, provide access to user-generated data, and offer verification tools to advertising partners.
Additionally, it prohibits platforms from engaging in anti-competitive practices that favor their own products. Companies failing to comply with the rules face fines of up to 10% of their global turnover, which can rise to 20% in cases of repeated violations.
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