Intrude Awakening

We need to talk about the invasion into Ceuta. Not the one made up of migrants. The one made up of far right politicians looking to capitalize on the events of last week. Far-Right Leaders Descend on Ceuta, Angering Residents. One has to wonder what the connection is between the far right movement (from Europe to the US) and the events in the Spanish territory that seemed to fit so perfectly into their narrative. As Anne Applebaum explains in The Atlantic (Gift Article): We’ve seen this before. “So closely did this incident resemble the ‘invasion’ that MAGA and its European friends have long said is under way that it was hard not to suspect that it had been orchestrated … Surprised by the unprecedented numbers and perhaps fearing hundreds would drown—in the end, at least 70 people died in the water, including some children—the Spanish police let them land on the beach. This is when the photographs and videos began to circulate. Among those promoting them were senior members of the Trump administration, and senior leaders of the European far right … It remains unclear who created the viral posts that encouraged the would-be migrants to believe that they could get to Europe from Ceuta. But those who want to weaken the Spanish government, boost the European far right, and create turmoil inside the EU lost little time in promoting the photographs as soon as they arrived.”

+ Even if we’ve seen this kind of messaging before, it’s being received more enthusiastically and by more people than it has in decades. NYT (Gift Article): Europe’s Far Right, Once Marginal, Now Sets Tone on Spain Migrant Crisis.