OPINION:
British law enforcement recently arrested Irish comedian Graham Linehan for a social media post criticizing a transgender activist. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government felt the post threatened public order, so five armed police officers arrested the comedian at Heathrow Airport.
For decades in Oldham, England, parents have gone to political leaders alleging their daughters have been raped or groomed into prostitution by Pakistani immigrant gangs. Many of these parents were threatened with arrest for anti-Pakistani rhetoric and turned away.
British Parliamentarian Nigel Farage even came to America to testify in front of Congress about how dangerous the threat to free speech has become in his country.
Meanwhile, in France, leading conservative politician Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for office and sentenced to jail. European Union establishment opponents accused her and her party of embezzling European Parliament funds to pay party staff. Ms. Le Pen is the likely pick for French president in 2027. She is appealing the case, but the standing restriction from her running for office could ultimately overrule French voters.
In Hungary and Poland, the European Union has applied economic pressure to persuade the two populist nations to modify their nationalist positions. The EU wants the Polish and Hungarian governments to allow Brussels to dictate policies that the Polish and Hungarian people reject.
In each of these instances, setting aside the particulars of individual cases, the European elites have been going all-out to defeat, restrict or overrule opposing parties or ideas. This suppression of the popular will is ultimately counterproductive, even for the elites themselves. History tells us that popular movements that are suppressed grow rapidly and eventually erupt. The political beneficiaries of these eruptions sometimes come with problems of their own and pose even greater threats to the establishments that sought to subvert them.
You see this in Germany. After years of the establishment parties denouncing all speech against immigration, the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) is growing rapidly. Its leaders have used Nazi slogans and advocated deporting citizens who are not ethnically German. Despite the extreme rhetoric, it is the only party raising issues about crime and immigration. AfD is now the largest opposition party in Germany.
Similarly, in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders has moved from being an isolated protest politician with proposals to ban the Quran, restrict immigration from Muslim countries and close mosques. After years of suppression, he is the leader of the largest party in the Dutch parliament. The establishment is horrified and is doing everything it can to stop Mr. Wilders from becoming prime minister.
Of course, this pattern of left-wing establishments suppressing populist opposition movements is not restricted to Europe.
In Brazil, leading conservative politician and former President Jair Bolsonaro is on trial. His opponents accuse him of trying to plot a coup to stay in power after his 2022 electoral loss.
In South Korea, the new left-wing government has adopted a series of totalitarian tactics that resemble North Korea and Communist China. Unification Church leader Hak Ja Han Moon is being persecuted by the new government. More than 1,000 South Korean police and prosecutors executed an early morning raid on the 82-year-old woman’s home and office. The left-wing government is demanding the names of all church members so these can be matched up with the members of the Conservative Party. Other religious groups are also facing prosecution by the new government.
Despite warnings by President Trump, the South Korean government is continuing its attacks on religious liberty and threatening to damage our nations’ 75-year relationship.
In Japan, there has been an all-out effort to destroy the conservative, pro-American Abe faction (named after popular former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated). The Japanese government is also seeking to outlaw the Unification Church and potentially other religious groups.
As Americans, we have seen how aggressively the establishment worked to block candidate and then-President Trump from implementing his bold reform programs during his first term. We now know the CIA, FBI and President Obama himself orchestrated an effort to cripple Mr. Trump’s first term. We have lived through two failed impeachment efforts, two failed assassination attempts and four different efforts to put Mr. Trump in jail.
This is all part of a worldwide conflict. As elite establishments lose their ability to win fairly, they increasingly resort to abuses of power and devious maneuvers to block popular will from imposing change.
We are living through a crucial test of free speech, democracy and self-government. This is a real crisis of the cause of freedom.
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