The Kalergi Plan (Italian: Piano Kalergi), sometimes called the Coudenhove-Kalergi Conspiracy,[1] is a far-right, anti-semitic, white nationalist conspiracy theory[2][3] which claims that Austrian-Japanese politician Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi concocted a plot to mix white Europeans with other races via immigration. It was promoted in aristocratic European social circles.[4] The conspiracy theory is most often associated with European groups and parties, but it has also spread to North American politics.[5]
Origins
The conspiracy theory stems from a misconstrued section[clarification needed] from Kalergi's book Praktischer Idealismus, in which he predicted that a mixed race of the future would arise: "The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today's races and classes[a] will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals."[1][6] Modern far-right individuals seek to draw relationships between contemporary European policy-making and this quote.[1]
Austrian neo-Nazi writer Gerd Honsik wrote about the subject in his book Kalergi Plan (2005).[7] The independent Italian newspaper Linkiesta investigated the conspiracy theory and described it as a hoax which is comparable to the fabricated anti-semitic document The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[8]
Reception
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Kalergi plan as a distinctly European way of pushing the white genocide conspiracy theory on the continent, with white nationalists quoting Coudenhove-Kalergi's writings out of context in order to assert that the European Union's immigration policies were insidious plots that were hatched decades ago in order to destroy white people.[9] Hope Not Hate, an anti-racism advocacy group, has described it as a racist conspiracy theory which alleges that Coudenhove-Kalergi intended to influence Europe's policies on immigration in order to create a "populace devoid of identity" which would then supposedly be ruled by a Jewish elite.[10]
In his 2018 novel Middle England, author Jonathan Coe satirizes the concept with his conspiracy theorist character Peter Stopes.[11]
In 2019, the right-wing nonprofit organization Turning Point USA posted a photograph on Twitter in which a person was holding a beach ball that featured text promoting this conspiracy theory. The tweet was deleted soon after.[12][13]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Kalergi uses the German word Kasten, which means "castes" and not "social classes".
References
- ^ a b c Gaston, Sophia (November 2018). "Out of the Shadows: Conspiracy Thinking on Immigration" (PDF). Henry Jackson Society.
- ^ "Antisocial media turns Leavers into Brexit extremists". The New European. 16 December 2017.
large groups of people being radicalised daily and hourly, by far-right and neo-Nazi propaganda and a ubiquitous belief in wild conspiracy theories such as the Kalergi Plan
. - ^ "TPUSA Shares Photo with Visual Nod to 'White Genocide' Conspiracy Theory which revolves around the philosophy and political organizing of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an early 1900s Austrian politician who founded and presided over the Paneuropean Union. Some credit Kalergi for inspiring the later formation of the European Union". 12 April 2019.
- ^ "Organization Candace Owens Represents Shares, Then Deletes, Photo Promoting White Genocide Conspiracy Days After Her Testimony". Newsweek. 12 April 2019.
Believers in the Kalergi plan think that Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an Austrian politician in the early 1900s, constructed a plan to destroy white people in Europe by encouraging immigration
- ^ "Qué es el "plan de Kalergi", la teoría conspirativa que usan los partidos de ultraderecha contra la Unión Europea" [What is the "Kalergi plan", the conspiracy theory used by the extreme right parties against the European Union] (in Spanish). BBC Mundo. October 22, 2018.
It is the conspiracy theory known as "Kalergi's plan" , which, for just over a decade, has been circulated among the members of several European nationalist and far-right parties
- ^ Coudenhove-Kalergi, R. N. (1925). Praktischer Idealismus (in German). Vienna-Leipzig: Paneuropa-Verlag. pp. 22–23.
Der Mensch der fernen Zukunft wird Mischling sein. Die heutigen Rassen und Kasten werden der zunehmenden Überwindung von Raum, Zeit und Vorurteil zum Opfer fallen. Die eurasisch-negroide Zukunftsrasse, äusserlich dem altägyptischen ähnlich, wird die Vielfalt der Völker durch eine Vielfalt der Persönlichkeiten ersetzen
- ^ "Che cos'è – o sarebbe – il "Piano Kalergi"" [What is - or would be - the "Kalergi Plan"] (in Italian). Il Post. January 16, 2018.
- ^ "Cos'è il piano Kalergi, la bufala dei migranti che uccideranno gli europei" [What is the Kalergi plan, the migrant hoax that will kill Europeans] (in Italian). Linkiesta. September 28, 2015.
- ^ "Day of the trope: White nationalist memes thrive on Reddit's r/The_Donald". Southern Poverty Law Center. 19 April 2019.
With respect to Europe, the mythology of the “Kalergi plan” plays a similar role in constructing the “white genocide” narrative. Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi was an Austrian noble and early advocate of European integration. White nationalists mine his writings for evidence that the European Union is the culmination of a nefarious “plan” for white genocide put into motion decades ago.
- ^ "EXPOSED: For Britain and the "White Genocide" Conspiracy Theory". Hope Not Hate. 18 April 2019.
racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories have since developed that allege that Coudenhove-Kalergi devised a long-term scheme to undermine the white race by encouraging immigration into Europe, creating a populous devoid of identity who would supposedly be easily ruled by Jewish overlords.
- ^ "Middle England by Jonathan Coe review – a bittersweet Brexit novel". The Guardian. 16 November 2018.
- ^ "Group Candace Owens represents shares post inadvertently promoting white genocide conspiracy days after her congressional testimony". Newsweek. 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
- ^ "Turning Point USA plug anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on Twitter". Spectator USA. 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2020-12-05.
Further reading
- Amodeo, Clara (September 28, 2015). "Cos'è il piano Kalergi, la bufala dei migranti che uccideranno gli europei" [What is the Kalergi plan, the migrant hoax that will kill Europeans]. Linkiesta.
- "Che cos'è – o sarebbe – il "Piano Kalergi"" [What is - or would be - the "Kalergi Plan"]. Il Post. January 16, 2018.
- Attanasio, Angelo (October 22, 2018). "Qué es el "plan de Kalergi", la teoría conspirativa que usan los partidos de ultraderecha contra la Unión Europea" [What is the "Kalergi plan", the conspiracy theory used by the extreme right parties against the European Union]. BBC Mundo.
