commentary

So much for the transatlantic MAGA bromance. Europe's anti-immigrant, quasi-fascist parties are ready to move on

Published October 19, 2026 6:30AM (EDT)

A photo of Donald Trump is displayed as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appears on the TV program "Porta a Porta," Jan. 21, 2026, in Rome. (Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)

When Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he seemed like the leader, or at least the dominant figure, of a globalized version of the MAGA movement, a worldwide network of far-right parties sometimes described as the “nationalist international.” We can make a long list, starting with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, the not-quite-neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany, or AfD , and Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, along with other previously-fringe parties now creeping toward the mainstream in many different places.

If it strikes you that the term “nationalist international” contains its own contradiction, by the way, you’re…