From caviar to Qatar: the European left that aged badly and ended worse

The only positive aspect of the Epstein scandal is the fall of a monarchy of leftist nepotists and opportunists who helped destroy Europe – and whose ‘gauche caviar’ hypocrisy was exposed.

by Giulio Meotti

In the gauche caviar, in the end, it was the caviar that prevailed.

Jack Lang, untouchable for half a century, fell because of Jeffrey Epstein. At parties Lang used to say: “French culture is me”.

And now the party is over. Lang tried to save himself by becoming the de facto ambassador of Qatar, praising the role of the emirate-sponsor of Hamas-in “spreading Islam in Europe” and “defending Palestine.”

In 1987, as French Minister of Culture, he founded the Arab World Institute in Paris, which he has since directed thanks to Qatar’s support and money.

At the Bataclan they had not yet finished counting the dead when Lang was already in the media defending Qatar against accusations of financing Islamic terrorism.

To say Lang is to say Mitterrand: the era of champagne-and-caviar socialist leftism. He was its symbol and its bard.

Historian Pierre Vermeren explains the fall of “cultural leftism.”

Lang wanted to bring Arabic everywhere, from the Avignon Festival to public schools. A character worthy of Houellebecq’s novel “Submission”.

He was the symbol of an era in which courteous servility toward power masqueraded as progressivism, and public money flowed freely to finance festivals, exhibitions, and client networks.

Laurent Joffrin gave the best definition of the “gauche caviar”:

“A left that says what must be done but does not do what it says; that loves the people but avoids sharing their fate; that votes with workers but dines with the bourgeoisie.”

Then the old egalitarian fervor, once sumptuous opportunism disguised as cultural refinement, turned into complacent submission to oil powers and authoritarian regimes.

The last survivor of the dynasty is Ségolène Royal.

First adviser to Mitterrand, then partner of François Hollande, then minister, then presidential candidate, then Arctic ambassador. Later, icon of environmentalism before Greta and now champion of decolonization.

Last week, Royal paid a high-profile visit to Algeria, a country holding a French journalist hostage and having imprisoned a French writer.

She received a warmer welcome than diplomats. She met dictator Tebboune, avoided mentioning the hostage, and told Algerians what they like to hear: France must apologize again and again.

No surprise: her solution is total submission.

Royal is no stranger to praising authoritarian regimes.

She praised China’s justice system and later called Fidel Castro a “historic monument.”

She shares with her friends a passion for dictatorships, especially anti-Western and Islamic ones. Champagne and Quran, Islam permitting.

How is it possible that all these libertines ended up working for the crescent?

Dominique de Villepin became a consultant for Arab sovereign funds. Laurent Fabius became “Qatar’s best ally in Paris.”

When Martine Aubry, another icon of this gauche caviar, met an imam in Roubaix, he demanded the meeting be held in the Muslim neighborhood. Her daughter later voted against freeing Boualem Sansal.

One positive aspect of the Epstein scandal is the fall of this monarchy of nepotists and opportunists who helped destroy Europe.

What remains is an emptied-out progressivism: indignation toward the West, indulgence toward its enemies.

Caviar has won-and left a bitter taste for those who served it too long. All that remains is the stale aftertaste of a vanished Western era.

israelnationalnews

UK: Former imam who pretended to have spiritual powers found guilty of multiple rapes and sexual assaults

Abdul Halim Khan has been found guilty | MET POLICE

A former imam has been found guilty of 21 offences after abusing his position as a faith leader by pretending to have spiritual powers to coerce and sexually abuse girls as young as 12.

Abdul Halim Khan abused his position as a respected faith leader within the local community to abuse multiple women and girls over a 11-year period between 2004 and 2015.

Khan was an imam at a mosque who persuaded each of the victims into meeting him at isolated places including flats and quiet hidden locations to prevent harm falling on them according to him, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

He would then rape or sexually abuse the victims under the premise he would be possessed or disguised as a jinn (supernatural spirit), the CPS added.

The victims felt they had to keep these acts hidden and quiet from families and friends for fear of doing them harm via “black magic”, the CPS said.

The 54 year-old of Old Forde Road, London was found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday of 21 offences including nine counts of rape.

Police first became aware of Khan’s offending in February 2018 when the youngest victim reported Khan to a teacher at her school, the Met said.

In his interviews Khan repeatedly denied the allegations, stating it was a conspiracy and the victims had concocted a story for revenge, police said.

Khan was charged on March 16 2023. He was found guilty of nine counts of rape; four counts of sexual assault; two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13; five counts of rape of a child under 13; one count of assault by penetration.

He has been remanded into custody ahead of sentencing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on May 14.

Follow the verdict, one of the survivors of Khan’s abuse said: “The abuse I suffered as a child has had a profound and lasting impact on my life. What happened to me did not end when the abuse stopped, it affected my sense of safety, my ability to trust others, and the way I understood relationships and authority.

“Someone who should never have harmed me violated that trust, and the effects of that betrayal have stayed with me for many years and I continue to carry that trauma with me.”

Detective Sergeant Sara Yems, who led the investigation, said: “It shows remarkable strength for anyone to report abuse, especially when the abuser is believed to be a trusted figure.

“The seven women who came forward have shown extraordinary courage in speaking with police and I hope they serve as inspiration to other victims and survivors.

“While nothing will undo the harm suffered by these women, yesterday’s conviction will hopefully offer a small measure of comfort. I’d like to thank the dedicated team of Met officers who left no stone unturned in their pursuit of justice.

“We remain absolutely committed to tackling violence against women and girls, targeting dangerous offenders and removing them from London’s streets.”

Specialist prosecutor for the CPS Melissa Garner said: “Abdul Halim Khan, a former imam, abused his position of trust and authority to carry out a vicious series of rapes and sexual abuses against seven victims including three vulnerable teenage girls.

“Khan coerced and deceived them into thinking that he possessed supernatural powers which could protect them and their families from harm in exchange for hideous acts of sexual abuse without their consent. The lifelong physical and emotional trauma caused to victims by men like Khan cannot be understated.

“We would like to thank the victims in this case for coming forward and reporting this devastating crime.

“I hope this conviction sends a clear message that the CPS will relentlessly pursue justice and prosecute those who sexually exploit women and children, whenever that abuse took place.”

Anyone with information or wishing to report offences relating to Khan can call 101 quoting Operation Sparebank, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

gbnews

After badmouthing America at the Olympics, U.S. athletes … underperform on the medal count

After flooding the zone with anti-Trump comments and questioning their own loyalty to the country they were representing at the Olympics, America’s Olympic athletes, so hyped and sure to win in the press … are going low on the medal count.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

MILAN—They came to Italy for a gold rush. 

From the downhill course of Cortina to the cross-country tracks of Val di Fiemme and a figure skating rink on the edge of Milan, members of Team USA envisioned themselves spending the entire Olympics on the top steps of podiums. And with the biggest delegation here, they dreamed of a run that would surpass their record 10 gold medals the last time they hosted the Winter Games. 

Then came the disastri. 

One by one, America’s made-for-TV stars fell short of expectations. Lindsey Vonn crashed. Chloe Kim fell. Mikaela Shiffrin struggled. The most shocking fumble of all came on Friday night when figure skater Ilia Malinin, the self-proclaimed “quad god,” melted down in the brutal heat of the Olympic spotlight.

It was merely the latest disappointment of an Olympics souring faster than burrata in the sun for Team USA, which is suddenly on track for its fewest winter golds since 1998. 

What a coincidence — not liking your country goes right there alongside not winning one’s match.

This is why wokester statements about politics, Trump, not liking the results of the last election, hating ICE, are such a bad idea before the games are over. 

The Journal expressed bafflement as to why so many top-ranked athletes were washing out, But anyone with a lick of common sense could sense that if they were talking about Minneapolis to the press, they weren’t exactly focusing on their games.

They were restyling themselves as internet influencers, celebrities, people who had already won the games, imagining they could change the world now by making hate-Trump statements and changing everyone’s minds about the president. In reality, they were taking their eyes off the ball, focusing on their own games which is the only thing they should have been doing. 

To be sure, not every athlete who washed out or failed to win gold was out there making woke statements. I didn’t hear any bad stuff from snowboarder Chloe Kim or ice skater Ilia Malinin.

But slalom skiier Mikaela Shiffrin was all in on the wokester tripe, sounding like a Minneapolis karen AWFL.

According to Newsweek, which compiled a library of wokester statements:

“I think there’s a lot of hardship in the world globally, and there’s a lot of heartbreak, there’s a lot of violence,” she said, when asked about the political climate in the U.S. “It can be tough to reconcile that when you’re also competing for medals in an Olympic event. I actually have some thoughts. I can read something that I had written.”

“Peace is not just the absence of conflict,” she read, quoting Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist and South Africa’s first Black president, before adding that she would show up with tenacity and work ethic while representing her values.

Oh, spare us. No wonder she didn’t win, she was so focused on virtue-signaling to the rest of us she didn’t deliver the goods — she slalomed poorly with low speed meaning both she and her partner “unexpectedly” missed the medal podium, Shiffrin actually placing 15th in her race, not first as predicted.

Another washout, Malinin, was a sad story, falling twice and underperforming on various leaps and jumps in his ice-skating program. I was sorry for him because he had been hyped so hard in the press, while two of the biggest wokester statement-makers — Shiffrin and skater Amber Glenn, loudly offered their support, meaning, unintentionally laid a lot of extra pressure on him. In reality, it might have been the two wokester kisses of death.

As I noted, he didn’t make any political statements that I am aware of, and he believed he was focused on his game, but it’s possible that with the plethora of woke statements and media attention for the wokesters there was social contagion in the Olympic village, making it hard for him to concentrate, too. Woke statements not only distract athletes from their own games, they can distract other athletes, too. And if they were conservative athletes, it might have even been worse. In addition it could not have helped that creeps from outside, as Newsweek reported, were sending nasty threats and notes, too.

Who needs that before a high stakes game one has trained years to get to? Now they go home not as champions with medals, but people who said woke things as their claim to fame. What a loathesome tradeoff. Maybe the next crop of athletes will be wiser, or the USOC will set some protective ground rules to keep them on the straight and narrow to the medals.

americanthinker

Murdered by Antifa, Quentin died today

The victim Quentin D.,screenshot X/ visegrad24

A young Catholic man has allegedly been murdered after sustaining catastrophic head injuries at the hands of far-left activists in Lyon on February 12. The Catholic, named in reports as Quentin, had been a member of an informal security group defending protests outside a political conference near the Sciences Po university. He was administered last rites by a priest before his death.

Lyon: footage of the murder of Quentin by Antifa extremists

According to multiple French media reports, the incident occurred during tensions surrounding an appearance by the European Parliament member Rima Hassan. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into aggravated violence resulting in death following a confrontation between activists linked to the group Collectif Némésis and “anti-fascist” militants.

The group Quentin was defending was named Collectif Némésis, a right-wing association advocating for the protection of women. Witnesses have alleged that members of the anti-fascist group Jeune Garde, founded by Raphaël Arnault, were responsible. These claims have been circulated online by commentators including Eva Vlaardingerbroek and the account Visegrád 24.

Police sources cited by BFMTV reported that tensions began at approximately 6.40pm when opposing activist groups gathered near the conference venue and surrounding university sites. Around 50 individuals were said to have been involved in a violent altercation. Two people were reported injured, including Quentin, who was found with a severe head injury. He was treated at the scene by emergency services before being transported to hospital in critical condition.

A source close to the investigation, cited by BFMTV, stated that the victim was discovered with “a significant head haematoma”. Prosecutors said: “An investigation was immediately opened … At this stage, the context and circumstances of these acts must be determined.” Officials confirmed that investigators are reviewing surveillance footage, forensic evidence and witness testimony in order to establish the sequence of events.

Organisers connected to Némésis alleged that one of their female members had been assaulted earlier in the evening and that the young man “sustained a heavy blow to the head” during the clashes. Authorities have not confirmed these claims and have emphasised that the precise circumstances remain under examination.

Lyon municipal leaders condemned what they described as an “extremely violent” confrontation, while refraining from assigning blame and urging restraint as the inquiry proceeds.

National political reaction followed. National Rally president Jordan Bardella issued a statement expressing condolences to the victim’s family and calling for “the full truth” to be established regarding the circumstances of the death. Other commentators circulated online appeals for prayer and solidarity.

Traditional Catholic circles, including supporters connected to Academia Christiana, have organised rosaries and vigils for the repose of the young man’s soul following reports that he had received sacramental care during his final hours.

thecatholicherald

Tommy Robinson leaves UK after Islamic State publication calls on Muslims to murder him

Tommy Robinson at Speakers’ Corner. Picture taken by photojournalist Shayan Barjesteh van Waalwijk van Doorn, Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-4.0

Notice the Bedfordshire Police warns Tommy that he cannot carry a weapon for his own self-protection. The far-left British government has been hounding him for years and imprisoning him at every opportunity on the flimsiest of pretexts. It’s not unlikely that Keir Starmer and his henchmen would uncork a bottle of champagne if the Islamic State murdered Tommy. That would solve a neat problem for them and take away one of the only voices that British patriots have.

jihadwatch

Germany must crush Central Europe first if it wants to push US out of Europe

In recent days, Germany, under globalist leadership, has proposed the creation within the European Union of the so-called E6 format – an informal framework bringing together the EU’s six largest economies: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland – intended to accelerate the implementation of selected economic policies whenever decision-making at the level of the EU-27 becomes stalled. Poland has been invited to join this initiative, and representatives of the current government have declared their support for it “in principle”.

Proponents of E6 speak of strengthening eurozone economies, boosting investment and reducing dependence on external suppliers. In reality, however, this initiative amounts to an extra-treaty structural shift in the way decisions are made within the EU. Were E6 to become operational, it would represent a major step towards de facto centralisation by fait accompli, reinforcing the dominance of Germany and France and enabling key policies – from energy to defence – to be shaped in line with the interests of the largest players. From Poland’s perspective, this project fragments Central Europe as a genuine political actor and, by drawing Poland into the EU’s “core integration”, neutralises its role as a bastion of freedom, normality, and transatlantic partnership. This includes pressure to adopt the euro and further concentration of power in Brussels – on terms fundamentally at odds with the strategic interests of Poland and the wider Central European region.

The E6 format is not a neutral “efficiency upgrade” of the EU, but an attempt to shift real decision-making into a narrow, informal circle of Member States dominated by Germany and France, now firmly in the hands of globalist elites. Its core danger lies in accelerating the mechanisms of dominance by the largest Member States and deepening EU centralisation at the expense of national sovereignty. For Poland, this means being gradually drawn into the potentially fatal machinery of a system designed in Brussels, in which Warsaw – even as a formal participant – would remain a marginal and ultimately dispensable partner. Unlike within the existing treaty-based framework, where Poland can, under favourable political conditions, build effective coalitions, the E6 structure would drastically curtail such room for manoeuvre.

Poland is too large an economy, too significant a military actor – possessing the largest land army in Europe and defence spending approaching 5 per cent of GDP – and too strategically located to be ignored. It also has the potential to leverage fully its strengths thanks to traditionally close and friendly relations with the United States – even if the current, compliant Tusk government is deliberately squandering these advantages. Today, Poland has become a laboratory of liberal lawlessness and the dismantling of state structures and cultural identity, where liberal elites are refining instruments that may next be deployed against other nations: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, or even a politically reawakening France. In recent weeks, the intensity of the struggle for the “Polish soul” has become particularly visible: Whether Poles will remain anchored in Western values, freedom of speech and conscience, and transatlantic cooperation in the sense articulated by JD Vance in Munich last year – or whether they will be drawn, not only politically but also at the level of social consciousness, into the orbit of Brussels’ left-liberal elites.

The globalist Tusk government is pursuing a systematic policy of fostering anti-American sentiment, testing how far it can go in weakening Polish-American relations. We are witnessing a disinformation campaign of a scale and intensity comparable to communist anti-American propaganda of the 1980s. Liberal media – both German and American – together with politicians from Tusk’s ruling coalition, portray everything related to the Trump administration in a grossly manipulative manner: From events in Minneapolis and the actions of ICE, through the Greenland issue, to the Epstein affair, where alleged “Polish threads” prompted criminal proceedings on Tusk’s instruction and were then framed as a supposed “Donald Trump scandal”. Statements by Donald Trump criticising NATO’s engagement in Afghanistan are misrepresented as attacks on Poland, meanwhile communications by US Ambassador Rose concerning the offensive remarks made by a former communist apparatchik, now serving as Speaker of the Polish Sejm under a left-liberal majority, are framed as “interference in Polish affairs”. In short, a large-scale disinformation operation is underway to turn Poles away from America and President Donald Trump, reshaping Poland’s traditionally pro-American sympathies to align with the agenda of the Brussels-imposed, collaborationist government in Warsaw.

Drawing Poland into the E6 format is, in effect, a plan for its final neutralisation through entanglement in a constricting embrace. During eight years of conservative government, Poland – often in coordination with Hungary – demonstrated that it could effectively block ideologically-driven agendas, such as the imposition of woke policies in family law, by using or credibly threatening to use its veto. This is merely one example from a policy area I had the honour to oversee in government, illustrating how globalist projects can be stopped when national governments retain real leverage. Under E6, however, agendas in finance, defence, capital markets, raw materials, energy and industrial policy would be pre-negotiated within this inner circle, with Germany and France exercising decisive influence, and subsequently imposed on the EU-27 as a starting point. This would sharply narrow Poland’s room for manoeuvre and weaken its ability to build broader coalitions.

As a preliminary step in an advancing centralisation project, E6 would in practice create a two-tier Europe and dismantle the existing balance within the EU. The creation of such an inner circle – and Poland’s inclusion within it – would weaken relations with the Visegrád Group, the Baltic states and Eastern partners, undermining Poland’s role as a bridge between “old” Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. It would also entail abandoning Poland’s position as a regional leader. In practical terms, this would significantly weaken Central Europe as a whole, forfeit the ambition of becoming a genuinely equal “second lung” of the continent, and open more strategic space in this part of Europe for Russia and China, both seeking access routes to the Atlantic.

From a geopolitical standpoint, E6 threatens to dilute Poland’s hard security priorities. If this format begins to shape defence policy, even a government in Warsaw committed to transatlantic partnership would inevitably be outvoted on issues such as policy towards Russia or the role of the United States and NATO, particularly under pressure from Paris to advance a version of “European strategic autonomy”. For Germany, the immediate benefit would be the neutralisation of US efforts to anchor European defence strategy more strongly in Poland and less in Germany. In the longer term, it would facilitate Berlin’s emergence, under the current globalist-led government, as a power centre acting independently of – and increasingly in opposition to – the United States. In the short term, this weakens the transatlantic security pillar vital to Poland; in the long term, it contributes to pushing America out of Europe and reviving a dangerous concert-of-powers dynamic, with a dependent, sovereignty-deprived Poland once again exposed to the strategic designs of Russia.

E6 also entails tangible economic and constitutional costs. Drawing Poland into the EU’s “core” would mean pressure to submit to deeper fiscal integration, capital markets union and, ultimately, eurozone membership – on terms primarily benefiting the largest economies. Italy and Spain have already paid a heavy price for this model, as have smaller states such as Slovakia and Lithuania. At the same time, the format aligns with a broader agenda of weakening veto rights and expanding majority voting, reducing the ability of Poland and other smaller Member States to block unfavourable decisions and to advance their own policy priorities.

Contrary to what the current globalist government in Warsaw will seek to portray, E6 is not an “elevation of Poland into the elite”, but a structural reconfiguration of EU decision-making that strengthens German and French dominance and fragments Central Europe as a genuine political actor. By drawing Poland into core integration, it neutralises its role as a bastion of freedom, normality and transatlantic partnership, including through pressure towards euro adoption and further centralisation of power. All of this takes place on terms fundamentally incompatible with the strategic interests of Poland and Central Europe, as well as with the civilisational interests of all those who seek to remain part of the community of free people and sovereign states of the West.

brusselssignal

The Three P’s of Rural Racism: People, Pubs, and Pets

Illustration AI generator

The British countryside is “too white.” At least that is, according to Defra—the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, as reported earlier this month in these pages. Following a report in 2019, National Landscapes—a charity mostly funded by Defra—has been launching outreach programs aimed at encouraging ethnic minorities to break the stranglehold of “white communities,” “white spaces,” and “white environments.” 

The initiatives focus on ‘people,’ ‘pubs,’ and ‘pets’—the three P’s of rural racism, surely? In terms of people, regrettably, the British countryside appears to cater to “white English culture”—which obviously has to change. Pubs traditionally involve drinking, which is unwelcoming to some communities. And pets—specifically dogs, are encouraged to be kept on a tighter leash, because Muslims do not like them. It’s worth pinching yourself and realising that this is not April 1st; this is real, and taxpayer money has been spent to reach these conclusions. 

Neither is this Mother Nature’s first rodeo in terms of racism allegations. Only last year, it was reported that the British countryside was “overwhelmingly white” and was in need of more halal food. A year prior, rural England found itself a “racist colonial” white space, according to wildlife charities. 

Of course, the British are used to this. Indeed, it is increasingly difficult to find things which aren’t ‘too white’—and it would certainly make for a shorter list than those that are—e.g., maths, the media, milk, the Miss Scotland pageant, Miss World, modelling, and museums—and that’s just the M’s. What’s interesting about the attack on the whiteness of the countryside is that the crime appears to be the audacious congregation of white people in physical spaces without the coddling comforts of diversity. You will perhaps recall that jogging, gardening, and hiking have all been similarly lambasted as secret havens of white supremacy. 

However much the architects of white replacement profess their commitment to ‘diversity,’ the erasure of Britain’s white past, present, and future is no longer a fringe theory, but an observable process unfolding in plain sight. British history is being steadily revised until it can pass a modern diversity audit; the nation’s literature, art, and public memory are being thinned of “dead, white men,” clearing the path for a more progressive narrative. In the present, the indigenous population finds itself increasingly treated as an embarrassment in its own homeland: white faces are algorithmically minimised in stock imagery, while white families are quietly edited out of ‘real London’ promotions. 

Culturally, self-flagellation has become a civic virtue; institutions once central to national life now frame their own founding stock as the problem to be solved. Demographically, the trajectory is unmistakable: white British people are already a minority in their own major cities—and will be in the country as a whole within forty years, while white birth rates remain the lowest and immigration continues at record levels. When this replacement is pointed out, the response has shifted from denial to a shrugging “so what?”—as if the disappearance of the people who built and named the place were merely an interesting footnote rather than the central fact of modern Britain.

None of this however is, I believe, the correct place to start. The first question I would ask, and which no one as far as I am aware in the commentariat has dared to venture, is what exactly does “too white” mean; and, more to the point, who had the gall to come up with the concept in the first place? Is there an acceptable level of whiteness, beyond which we are pushing our luck? Are whites, by definition, undesirable? Should there be diversity quotas for absolutely every avenue of life? Implicit in the statement is the notion that while all other groups are encouraged to gather, there is something worrying or even dangerous when whites do it—as immortalised by the BBC’s Jon Snow a few years back when reporting on a Brexit march: “It’s been the most extraordinary day. A day which has seen … I have never seen so many white people in one place, it’s an extraordinary story.” I always felt, and continue to feel, that this said more about him than those he referenced. 

It is remarkable how reticent journalists are to question this school of thought, however. Here for instance is the ‘anti-racist’ campaigner, Ken Hinds, voicing his support for the diversification of the British countryside, and bemoaning the fact that it has been “white for far too long”: 

For some however, this does not go far enough. While le grand remplacement is customarily denounced as a far-right conspiracy theory, there are now those such as Spain’s far-left leader, Irene Montero, who are saying the quiet part about replacement migration out loud.

europeanconservative