Dear friends and interested readers,
Welcome to the 16th newsletter on and against global authoritarianism, April 2026. While Trump is touting the fragile ceasefire in the Strait of Hormuz as a victory, many people in Hungary are hoping to see his loyal friend, Viktor Orbán, replaced in the upcoming elections.
In our ReGA newsletter, you will find
→ as always, a look at the foreign policy of the AfD, which has difficulties with U.S. interventionism, and a personnel update: a new face at the AfD-affiliated foundation in Brussels
→ under “Europe’s Far Right,” we report this time on the results of state and local elections in the Netherlands, Slovenia, and France
→ under International Reports, you’ll find a report by Frederic Schnatter on the Milei Conference the Milei Institute for Deregulation in Europe organized in Saxony in March
→ with our Linea B project, you can read reports from Latin America on Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
→ finally, information on upcoming and past events—by and against the far right!
We begin with some good news: In Argentina, fifty years after the coup of March 24, 1976, more than a million people demonstrated under the slogan “Memoria, Verdad, Justicia”—that is, Memory, Truth, Justice. The commemoration of the up to 30,000 people who disappeared during the dictatorship, and the demand for truth and justice, continue to mobilize people of all ages, genders, and social classes to this day. For our valued partner organization CELS, it is particularly significant that, after long-standing divisions, a large, united demonstration took place again this year in Buenos Aires. This strong signal against the historical revisionism of Javier Milei’s government gives democratic and progressive forces a boost that is needed both in Argentina and internationally.
It remains to be seen who will emerge strengthened from the parliamentary elections taking place in Hungary on Sunday. While Péter Magyar—a conservative, but pro-European, and anti-corruption figure—and his TISZA Party (Tisztelet és Szabadság Párt) are well ahead of Viktor Orbán in the polls, Orbán has been ruling Hungary with increasing authoritarianism since 2010. Yet international efforts to support Orbán continue unabated: Following U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s visit to Orbán in February, figures including Alice Weidel (“God bless Hungary, God bless Germany, God bless a free Europe”), Santiago Abascal (VOX), and Javier Milei, who traveled from Argentina, campaigned for Orbán; Donald Trump assured him of his “complete and total support” in a video message. In early April, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance traveled to Budapest for the same reason to visit the right-wing think tank Mathias Corvinus Collegium. In addition to expected fake news or false flag attacks, it is particularly alarming that coordination of the OSCE election observation mission falls to Putin confidante Daria Bojarskaja. The Europe Calling Seminar #258 “Orbán or the Rule of Law” provides a good overview of the political landscape in Hungary and the EU.
Since late January, the escalating interventionism of the United States has brought great suffering and death to the people of the Middle East. European nations and the EU are divided in their response: some support the war or let Trump have his way, while others—such as the Spanish Prime Minister—hesitantly or unequivocally refuse to back the war. Far-right parties have no better answers to offer. The “Transatlanticists” among them—the supporters of Trump and his global MAGA movement—are finding it increasingly difficult to navigate between authoritarian solidarity with the US and Israel and national sovereignty. In this newsletter, we describe the consequences this has for Germany’s AfD. We would also like to draw attention to our research on the “CPAC Germany” appearing event held in late March in Dallas (USA), which sheds light on a personnel matter at the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) foundation: Arian Aghashahi’s involvement with the AfD-affiliated Sovereignty Foundation.
There has been another breach of the “cordon sanitaire” in the European Parliament. According to media reports citing leaked chat group messages, the Christian Democratic EPP (European People’s Party) group, led by Manfred Weber (CSU), has not only once again voted alongside all far-right groups in Parliament to push through stricter asylum laws. The EPP had also previously made arrangements with all parties, including the AfD-led ESN. Such arrangements had been suspected earlier but could never be publicly substantiated. The votes in Parliament are intended, among other things, to enable so-called “return hubs,” or collection camps in third countries. Such measures have the full support of all factions of the far right. AfD members of parliament and many others therefore enthusiastically welcomed the successful vote with standing ovations. Criticism of the approach came from the federal CDU, specifically from Chancellor Friedrich Merz and parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn; Weber has not yet provided any clarification.
A brief note regarding the event on April 22 in Berlin on the topic “What to Do About Milei and Co.?” as well as the Call for Application for the 2026 Horkheimer Fellowship.