Month: May 2026

France Leaves the Defence of its Online Reputation to Qatari Interests

Doha skyline. Wikimedia Commons, Sebbe xy, CC-BY-SA-3.0

On X, the @FrenchResponse account, officially linked to the French ministry of foreign affairs, is supposed to represent France’s interests and defend the country’s image internationally on social media. But its ideologically aggressive stances have caught the attention of internet users, who have exposed its suspicious links with Qatar. The ministry defends itself and accuses the ‘far right’ of ‘racism.’

The influencer Pierre Sautarel, owner of the @FrDesouche account, at the heart of the French online disinformation-revealing enterprise, has on several occasions highlighted the excesses of the account’s administrator, such as when they mocked Tommy Robinson’s visit to Paris, during which Robinson lamented the area around Gare du Nord—notoriously a cesspool of filth and crime.

Annoyed by the recurring pro-immigration tweets on this quasi-official account, the influencer looked into the profile of the person running it. His revelations are worth their weight in gold.

The person in question is a certain Marie-Doha Besancenot, with a rather unusual first name. Having worked at NATO, she is the daughter of Bertrand Besancenot, former French ambassador to Qatar and a central figure in Franco-Qatari relations. She was born in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and her first name is a tribute to this emirate, explains Sautarel. The Besancenot family has close ties with the ruling Al-Thani family of Qatar. Within the family circle, there are also connections to Jacques Chirac’s former prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, another figure known for his close ties to Qatar and the Al-Thani family.

Qatar is not a neutral player. The emirate maintains open relations with Daesh, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and the Taliban. Immediately upon retirement, Marie-Doha’s father was approached to become an adviser to Qatar Charity, an organisation that funds numerous mosques and Islamist associations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in France and across Europe. And to this young person, the foreign minister chose to entrust France’s informal counter-offensive on social media.

Following Sautarel’s revelations, foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot railed against “the far-right pack” accused of spewing “hate speech” in the name of “degenerate conspiracy theories.”

Faced with attacks from on high, Sautarel defends himself. This is not a fixation on a first name with exotic-sounding accents but something far more serious: “We are denouncing a risk of interference based on public information, which is only prohibited in dictatorships.”

Rassemblement National MEP Pierre-Romain Thionnet pinpoints exactly what is problematic about the @FrenchResponse account.

While acknowledging at first glance a certain usefulness in the initial project—filling the gap in France’s diplomatic presence in the battle of online ‘narratives’—he questions the political line it champions: “It presents what weakens us (migration policy, identity crisis) as a strength” without considering that these are objective problems to be addressed. He sums it up: “From French Response, we sometimes quickly move on to Defence of the French Government.” 

Thionnet points out that whilst it is commendable to seek to free oneself from the influence of external powers, whatever they may be, the best way to achieve this is to prioritise the fundamentals that underpin the country’s sovereignty: “border protection, a shift in migration policy, the restoration of order on the streets and the affirmation of identity.”

europeanconservative

Unite the Kingdom’s new crusade has begun in the UK—and that’s a good thing

X screen grab.

by Andrea Widburg

In yesterday’s subscribers-only newsletter, I posited that Tommy Robinson is to the Islamo-socialist government of the UK what Lech Walesa was to the communist government in Poland. Through his courage, Walesa managed to knock down the first domino that led to the Soviet Union’s collapse. Robinson’s courage shows signs of doing the same against the UK’s current morally corrupt government, as evidenced by the absolutely massive Unite the Kingdom rally in London today.

The rally wasn’t just humongously large; it was also openly pro-Christian. This Christian element is important because the rally is a pushback against the British government’s open-door policy to mass Islamic immigration (both legal and illegal) and its obeisance to Muslims once they arrive, a policy invariably at the expense of non-Muslim British subjects of all races, colors, and creeds.

It should be said that the British government did its best to shut down the event, and at least one Muslim knew why:

This same government, of course, has done nothing to stop radical Muslims from marching through London regularly since October 7, 2023, with open cries for the slaughter of Jews.

Even without the planned speakers, the British people rallied in extraordinary numbers and with very Christian fervor. Importantly, as many of these videos make clear, this was not an event about race; it was about British values:

These people feel, rightly, that their government has abandoned them:

I anticipate that the left will soon pejoratively liken this movement to a crusade, in the Medieval mode, just as they did during the Iraq War. After all, for generations, Westerners have been taught that the Crusades were a vile, spontaneous military attack that the crude, racist Europeans launched against innocent, sophisticated Muslims, living peacefully in the faraway Holy Land. And yes, many of the crusaders were brutal (especially to Jews), but it was a more brutal time. What matters is that much of the modern narrative about the Crusades is a myth.

The Crusades were not an offensive war. They were a defensive war. In the years after Christ’s death, large swaths of the Middle East converted to Christianity, although some areas remained pagan (the areas in which Islam started), and many Jews remained in the Holy Land despite the Romans’ brutal conquest in 70 A.D. Indeed, Lebanon was still Christian until recently, when Hezbollah forced out or killed its Christian community.

It was the Muslims who, true to the dictates of Islam, went on a rampage throughout the Middle East and North Africa, converting hapless victims through fire and sword as they went:

As we’ve seen most recently on October 7, but also saw so vividly even before then with ISIS’s depredations in Iraq, Islamic conquest is brutal even by the standards of brutality. Men are slaughtered, and women are raped and enslaved…that is, those women who are deemed worthy of life. When it comes to Jews, Islam’s virulent hatred sees them gleefully torture men, women, and children to death and then mutilate their bodies. I’m not a fan of Islam.

While the West has become more civilized, much of the Islamic world, quite obviously, has not. Worse, leftist governments throughout Europe, especially in the UK, have invited these pre-modern Islamic migrants to make themselves at home. That’s why Britain’s non-Muslim residents of all races, colors, and creeds have good reason to fear a Muslim conquest and to fight back.

To their credit, the Brits have not turned to violence. Instead, they’re waging their battle with song, prayer, and the ballot box. Their turning out in such great numbers for a peaceful march may actually keep violence at bay. If they can replace the current Dhimmi government with a courageous pro-British government, the current Islamic conquest could be stopped non-violently today, before it needs to be stopped much more aggressively tomorrow.

One more thing: To those who say I’d take umbrage if this kind of march were organized against the Jews, you’re damn right I would. Putting aside the fevered paranoia of people like Tucker Carlson and the rabidly religious Jew-hatred cultivated in Islam, Jews are not a threat.

Nothing in Jewish or Israeli words or deeds indicates violent or colonialist intentions. Instead, they’ve contributed endlessly to the world, and not just with the Bible. Instead, whether in science, medicine, agriculture, industry, the arts, or any other area of human endeavor, the societies in which they live get better, not worse. (And yes, I know Karl Marx was born Jewish, although not raised that way, but his destructive ideology represented the virulent rejection of Judaism, not its ascendency.)

No one can say the same about Islam ascendant. And while there are lovely individuals who are Muslims, and I wish them well, you cannot create policy around people who face death from their co-religionists if they attempt to stand against the religion’s violence and hatred. The best that you can do is de-fang the fanatics so that the decent Muslims can be free.

So, kudos to the brave Brits who took to the streets today. If this is a new crusade, it’s a righteous one, and one, moreover, that the West must win if it is to survive.

americanthinker

Several People Injured as Man Drives Car Into Crowd in Modena, Italy

Screenshot

Several people were injured as a man wielding a knife mowed a car into a crowd of pedestrians in the city centre of Modena, Italy.

The Northern Italian city of Modena was struck by tragedy on Saturday, as a man, suspected to be from North Africa, drove a car at over a hundred miles an hour into innocent passersby on Via Emilia.

According to the local Gazzetta di Modena newspaper, the driver then abandoned the car and, while fleeing the scene, stabbed another pedestrian with a knife. Multiple brave good Samaritans then subdued the attacker, and he was finally detained by police.

In comments reported by Corriere della Sera, Modena Mayor Massimo Mezzetti said: “I want to thank these citizens. The man was also armed with a knife; they had courage and great civic sense. My heartfelt thanks go to them in this dramatic moment.”

The Mayor said that while investigators are still seeking to determine the motivation for the apparent attack, he revealed that the attacker “seems to be a North African, is at the police station and is being interrogated.”

A total of eight people were wounded during the mayhem, including two who suffered serious injuries, one of whom, a woman, is said to have lost her legs.

A witness said that the car “hit the pavement, also hitting a bike and then crashed, hitting a woman who is the most seriously injured, with her legs crushed”.

One of the men who subdued the driver said, “I chased him; in the meantime, 4 to 5 other people came after me. He disappeared behind a pile of cars and then emerged again with a knife in his hand. He was babbling something, but he wasn’t Italian”.

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Thousands attend ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in London

{YouTube CC-BY 4.0}
{YouTube CC-BY 4.0}

The best independent live news coverage of Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom 2026 as millions of patriots march and join the mega rally in central London amid political turmoil.  Katie Hopkins, Elon Musk, Laurence Fox and Ant Middleton are among the live speakers.  Dan Wootton’s special all day coverage is presented by rising star of British independent media ‪@Laurentheinsider‬ live from the Outspoken studio in London and Leo Kearse who has special backstage access from UTK itself where he will be joined by A-list guests and star speakers. 

{YouTube CC-BY 4.0}

Support our work here – https://www.urbanscoop.news/support-us/ Today in London, thousands come together under one message: four nations united in one Kingdom. This rally is a celebration of our shared British identity, our history, our heritage, and the culture that connects England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We believe in the importance of community, national pride, democratic values, and above all, freedom of speech — the cornerstone of a free society. Today’s event stands against growing political intolerance and against attempts to silence ordinary people for expressing lawful opinions. We believe open debate, free expression, and national unity must always be protected. One Kingdom Four Nations Freedom of Speech Unity Through Shared Heritage, Culture And Respect

Tommy Robinson

Spain: Syrian migrant arrested for allegedly trying to kidnap a child and threatening woman with sexual assault in Malaga

The mother of one of the targeted children speaks with Spanish meida.

Authorities in the Miraflores de los Ángeles neighborhood of Málaga have taken a man of Syrian origin into custody after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman and attempted to kidnap a child.

Two mothers, Coraima and Jasmine, were sitting in Malaga park yesterday with their children when the Syrian, in a drunken state, approached them and tried to grab one of the children. Initial news reports indicated that man was Moroccan, but Cuatro news outlet, which interviewed the mothers, indicates the man is a Syrian with a long criminal record.

Both mothers said they were sitting calmly with their children when the man approached.

“He looks at me, laughs and I was very scared and told the girls to take the boys because the man made a gesture like he wanted to pick up the children… This man, he went to grab Coraima’s child, but she got in the way and the man backed up. He didn’t open his mouth, he looked at us with a crazy face and laughing, laughing… He was carrying a carton of white wine and a backpack.”

“When I saw this man, I got up to protect the children. He rushed to grab the children. At that moment, he began to corner us, we stayed cornered until he decided to leave… He didn’t speak to me,” said Jasmine.

The man fled from there, and the arrest took place on a public street after a crowd of bystanders intercepted the suspect. Witnesses reportedly began to “reproach the suspect,” accusing him of having “restrained a minor with the apparent intention of taking him away.”

Police units, who were already in the area following a prior alert, arrived on the scene during this confrontation and successfully “managed to locate him at that moment and proceeded to arrest him.”

However, this was not the only crime the man allegedly committed that day. The suspect allegedly tried to sexually assault a woman earlier, where he “cornered her inside a doorway.”

The situation was interrupted by the “arrival of a neighbor,” which forced the man to flee. He also harassed a number of other women, according to the media report.

The Syrian has numerous convictions on his record for theft and assault.

rmx

Germany’s AfD plans to replace hundreds of civil servants after election win in battleground state

Riposte Laique

The right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has announced it will replace up to 200 civil servants in the state of Saxony-Anhalt – if it comes into power following the September elections there.

As Ulrich Siegmund, the party’s leader in Saxony-Anhalt, told newspaper MZ yesterday, there are plans to fill a three-figure number of posts in the administration with new personnel.

“A figure of between 150 and 200 posts seems realistic here,” he said.

The plans concern not just the highest levels of the state’s administration – such as ministers and their staff – but also lower echelons.

Siegmund indicated the replacements were necessary because many of the current civil servants might oppose his party and try to sabotage its work once in power:

“Large sections of the middle echelons are not politically aligned. We are open to working with anyone, regardless of their political affiliation … However, should anyone attempt to actively obstruct our work, we must, of course, take action,” he said.

The AfD leader claimed his party had a reservoir of people who already had experience in civil service and administration roles.

Siegmund also said he planned to abolish the State Energy Agency, a public body largely tasked with consulting citizens and companies on energy efficiency and promoting “green” energy.

The citizens of Saxony-Anhalt are electing a new state parliament on September 6, 2026. The right-wingers are leading in the polls – with latest surveys seeing them far ahead with 40 per cent of the vote.

The German cordon sanitaire, though – a promise by all parties including the Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to shun any co-operation with AfD – may keep them out of power even with almost half the electorate on their side.

Also yesterday, the Saxony-Anhalt CDU’s deputy chairman, André Schröder, indicated his party might even work together with the hard-left Die Linke party to keep the right-wingers out of power.

Die Linke is the legal successor to the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the one-time state party of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), which ran from 1949 to 1990.

In 2018, the CDU had adopted a party resolution precluding any “coalition and other form of co-operation” both with Die Linke and AfD.

Schröder said this resolution only precluded the CDU from a formal coalition with Die Linke but would not preclude a CDU minority government supported by the left-wingers:

“This decision does not affect voting patterns in individual cases regarding CDU initiatives,” he. said.

In April 2026, the CDU had teamed up with Die Linke to change Saxony-Anhalt’s constitution, preparing the ground for an eventual cooperation that would keep AfD on the side-lines.

brusselssignal

574 Candidates Elected on Muslim Issues in UK

“Over 10% of candidates who were elected to English local councils are Muslim sectarians”

The Islamization of the UK is proceeding rapidly. The Left invites Islamization, but in the end will be displaced because the only true politics of Islam is Islam. Eventually the pretenses of social justice, anti-war and other fig leaves under which Islamic politics operate disappear and all that’s left is Islam.

A minor preview from the UK where politics used to involve something other than Islam. Used to.

A total of 574 candidates were elected on Gaza-related or Muslim issues in the recent British local elections, according to an analysis by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS).

In other words, these are individuals whose campaign focused on Muslim transnational grievances, rather than local issues.

The 574 sectarian-style candidates were elected across 58 councils. This far exceeded HJS’s predictions ahead of polling day; HJS research had previously identified 170 sectarian-style candidates standing across more than 30 councils.

For context, this means that over 10% of candidates who were elected to English local councils are Muslim sectarians.

Broken down by party, 351 of the candidates were from the Green Party, 133 were Independents, 84 from the Labour Party, and six Liberal Democrats.

It’ll be more in the next election and the one after that and the one after that unless the cycle of Islamization is broken.

frontpagemag

Water Cannons Used Against Ongoing Dutch Migrant Shelter Protests

@MarioNawfal on X, 12 May 2026

Anti-asylum shelter protests in Loosdrecht continued on Wednesday evening, with police deploying a water cannon to disperse demonstrators after fireworks were again thrown at officers. Four people were arrested during the unrest.

The protest began peacefully near the Loosdrecht town hall, where the municipality recently opened a temporary emergency asylum shelter, despite clear opposition from locals. Around 50 people attended the demonstration.

Riot police intervened and positioned themselves to prevent demonstrators from reaching the town hall, where 15 asylum seekers arrived this week. Officers eventually used a water cannon to break up the crowd.

Earlier this week, the immigrant shelter was set alight after the arrival of the asylum seekers. Protesters threw fireworks at the building, and bushes adjacent to it caught fire. Emergency responders had trouble putting the fire out as locals were attempting to stop them from reaching the building.

A police spokesperson described the situation as “very unsettled,” though less severe than the violence seen on Tuesday night. The unrest is linked to plans by the municipality of Wijdemeren, which includes Loosdrecht, to house up to 70 single male asylum seekers for six months in an unused section of the council building.

Local authorities had not publicly announced the arrival of the first asylum seekers in advance because of weeks of tensions surrounding the shelter plan.

Following Tuesday’s violence, the municipality introduced strict security measures to prevent further escalation and protect those staying at the shelter. Only people with “a demonstrably reasonable purpose” are currently allowed access to the town hall area. Gatherings have been banned in a wider perimeter around the building, face-covering clothing is prohibited nearby, and police have been granted stop-and-search powers in the area.

This continues the deepening opposition between locals and municipalities. Past protests expressed that local governments never consulted the people living in those areas, despite promising to do so. The townspeople feel that police and the government are suppressing their voices and prioritizing the protection of illegal immigrants.

According to the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG), municipalities are taking responsibility for housing asylum seekers at the Cabinet’s request but are “increasingly confronted with intimidation, threats, violence, and organized disruptions.” The VNG described the incidents as “forms of terrorism and intimidation” and warned that local authorities and police forces are reaching their limits.

PVV leader Geert Wilders on Wednesday appealed to municipalities to take legal action against the Spreidingswet, the law that mandates towns to take in a quota of immigrants. “With your Spreidingswet, you are turning the Netherlands into one large asylum center. And it is right that people strongly resist that,” Wilders told asylum minister Bart van den Brink. 

Van den Brink revealed that the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD had launched an investigation into the anti-asylum riots to determine whether there is more “organization” behind the demonstrations than simply local residents expressing concerns.

According to the minister, investigators are examining “whether there is organized activity” behind the protests, as well as “what patterns there are and what lies behind them.” 

europeanconservative

Why Sunday’s Andalusian vote is Spain’s true general-election dress rehearsal

The Gateway Pundit

Andalusia, Spain’s largest region by population, votes for its regional parliament on Sunday, May 17. For the political classes in Madrid the ballot is far more than a routine regional contest: with no separatist parties competing seriously and a sociology that closely mirrors the country as a whole, the result will offer the most reliable preview yet of Spain’s next general election, expected by 2027.

Some 6.8 million Andalusians are eligible to vote, of whom 369,000 will do so for the first time. The community is bigger, in electoral terms, than the other three Spanish regions that have voted so far this spring put together.

Few Spanish elections offer a cleaner read on national sentiment. Andalusia is spread across eight provinces and 785 municipalities, with a balanced mix of large cities such as Seville and Málaga, mid-sized towns and depopulated rural areas. Unlike Catalonia, the Basque Country or Galicia, it has almost no separatist or peripheral-nationalist representation. The contest plays out essentially between the same five political families that dominate national politics – the centre-right Partido Popular (PP), the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), the Conservative Vox party, the left-wing Por Andalucía coalition and the andalucista Adelante Andalucía.

For decades that uniformity made Andalusia the rock on which the PSOE built its national majorities. The party governed the region uninterruptedly from 1982 to 2019, often with more than half of the vote. Moreno Bonilla’s PP broke that hegemony in 2019 with the support of Ciudadanos and Vox, and won an absolute majority in 2022.

The reverse logic now applies. If the socialists collapse in their old fortress, the rest of Spain is unlikely to look much different.

WHAT THE POLLS SAY

Surveys published before Spain’s legal pre-election blackout have pointed consistently in the same direction. The polling aggregate produced by The Objective on May 11 gave the PP 57 seats out of 109, the PSOE 28, Vox 17, Por Andalucía 5 and Adelante Andalucía 2. The model placed Moreno’s chances of holding an absolute majority – the magic threshold sits at 55 seats – at 81 per cent.

Other recent polls have been more cautious. GAD3 for Vocento and Sociométrica for El Español have placed the PP between 54 and 56 seats, leaving the absolute majority hanging on a handful of provincial votes in Córdoba, Granada and Huelva.

What every survey agrees on is the historic collapse of the PSOE. Its candidate, María Jesús Montero, is projected to fall to her party’s worst-ever Andalusian result, in the 21-24 per cent range and 25 to 30 seats. Vox is expected to improve on its 2022 score of 14 seats; should the PP’s absolute majority slip even by a single deputy, Santiago Abascal’s party would once again become indispensable for any government of the right.

A TEST FOR SÁNCHEZ AND MONTERO

The most immediate national casualty of a heavy defeat would be Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Already weakened by a string of corruption investigations involving members of his inner circle and his own family, the premier has campaigned aggressively alongside former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the region that elects almost one in five Spanish voters.

The bet is unusually exposed. Montero is no ordinary regional candidate: she served as Spain’s Finance Minister from 2018 until March 2026 and as First Vice-President of the Government from 2023, holding the PSOE’s number-two spot in Madrid before resigning her national offices to lead the Andalusian campaign.

A result below 30 seats would open a debate inside the PSOE over the party’s strategy on Catalan amnesty deals, the so-called financiación singular for Catalonia and the broader pivot towards alliances with Catalan and Basque nationalists – a pivot Moreno has built much of his campaign on attacking.

A TEST FOR FEIJOO AND ABASCAL

For the opposition the stakes cut in two directions. A solid PP absolute majority would validate Alberto Núñez Feijoo’s bet on a moderate, technocratic brand and hand the party leader his strongest argument yet against future general-election dependence on Vox. A shortfall, even by one seat, would force Moreno to negotiate with Santiago Abascal’s party and reopen the long bargaining processes seen this year in Extremadura and Aragón.

Extremadura spent four months negotiating before the PP and Vox finally agreed a coalition built around the latter’s “national priority” doctrine, which would prioritise Spanish nationals in access to certain regional benefits. Aragón has faced similar talks. Moreno has repeatedly invoked those examples as the kind of líos he wants Andalusia to avoid – a framing his right-wing critics view as a tactical hedge against the very voters whose support he will need if he falls short.

For Vox the contest is a strategic moment. Becoming kingmaker would consolidate its national leverage and align Spain with the broader European trend that has carried right-wing parties to government or first place in Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Hungary, with Alternative for Germany (AfD) and France’s Rassemblement National still rising. A more modest result would not undo that wave but would slow its Spanish chapter.

WHAT SPAIN WILL WATCH

By Sunday night, the answer to four questions will tell Spain a great deal about its next general election. Can the PP win alone? Can the PSOE hold its historic floor? Is Vox still rising? And does the moderate centre-right outpoll the harder right by enough to keep Feijoo’s strategy alive? Few regional ballots offer so much information in a single evening.

The next polling stations to open after Andalusia will, in all likelihood, be those of the general election. By then, half of the story will already have been told.

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