ppl's party belg

Since entering Germany’s parliament two years ago on an anti-Muslim and anti-immigration manifesto, the AfD has <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/afd-seeks-votes-by-opposing-climate-protection-a-1265494.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">embraced climate science denial as a new campaign strategy</a>.Its <a href="https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/111/2019/03/AfD_Europawahlprogramm_A5-hoch_web_150319.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">election manifesto</a> denies human-induced climate change and claims that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has meant “world food harvests have increased significantly”.“We doubt that man has significantly influenced or even managed the recent climate change, in particular the current warming. Climate protection policy is therefore a mistake,” the manifesto states.As such, the AfD rejects “all EU measures that justify the reduction of CO2 emissions with the protection of the climate”, including the Paris Agreement, which it describes as a “shift of funds from the highly industrialized countries to underdeveloped countries”.Most recently, the AfD has conducted a targeted smear campaigns against the <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/node/13549" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">climate school strike movement</a> and the 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.Climate change barely got a mention on the AfD’s social media channels when the party was founded in 2013. But it mentioned climate change more than 900 times in the past year alone, mainly promoting anti-Thunberg rhetoric, according to <a href="https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/05/14/germany-climate-denial-populist-eike-afd/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a joint investigation</a> by the counter-extremism organisation the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and Greenpeace’s Unearthed.Party chairman Jörg Meuthen, the lead candidate standing in the election, has repeatedly attacked Green politics and described climate change as “<a href="https://twitter.com/Joerg_Meuthen/status/1083653124836024320" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a replacement religion of all left green world parties and patronisers</a>”.Meuthen repeatedly accused those that want climate action of “Greta hype”, labelling them “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Prof.Dr.Joerg.Meuthen/photos/a.554885501326826/1289144574567578/?type=3&theater" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">CO2 believing disciples</a>”.Maximilian Krah, another AfD candidate, also targeted Thunberg 10 times in tweets between December 2018 and April 2019, describing the movement she inspired as a “<a href="https://twitter.com/KrahMax/status/1112307889409085440" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">psychosis</a>” and the <a href="https://twitter.com/KrahMax/status/1119525785923203072" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">consequences of a post-Catholic age</a>.He also <a href="https://twitter.com/KrahMax/status/870391343775985665" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">compared climate change to homeopathy</a>, claiming the EU could soon declare the latter a science.Earlier this year, coal miner Guido Reil, also a candidate, defended the party’s false claim that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JvCW0bH80" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">carbon dioxide is good for plants</a> and that it is having no impact on the climate.The AfD’s anti-climate campaign efforts have been <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/afd-seeks-votes-by-opposing-climate-protection-a-1265494.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">backed</a> by the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/european-institute-climate-and-energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">European Institute for Climate and Energy</a> (EIKE), a German-based climate science denial which is known for co-hosting a climate conference with the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Heartland Institute</a>, a US-based think tank which has been at the forefront of denying the scientific evidence for man-made climate change.EIKE’s advisory board include <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/christopher-monckton" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Christopher Monckton</a>, a former British politician and advisor to Margaret Thatcher, who was later affiliated with Ukip and a notorious climate science denier.<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><a id="Peoples Party" name="Peoples Party" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">People’s Party - Belgium</a></h3>The People’s Party is a primarily Francophone, <a href="https://www.lalibre.be/debats/opinions/notre-democratie-et-ses-ennemis-51b87b87e4b0de6db9a7ea69" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">anti-Islam</a>, right-wing party led by Mischaël Modrikamen.The party’s lurch to the far-right over the last few years has also seen its stance on climate change radicalised, rejecting climate action as a “<a href="http://lepeuple.be/le-pp-seul-contre-lhysterie-climatique/96329" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">collective hysteria</a>” and denying human-induced climate change.In <a href="http://lepeuple.be/le-pp-seul-contre-lhysterie-climatique/96329" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a statement</a> from February 2019, the party slammed Belgium’s decarbonisation policies as “excessive”. It described “the infinitesimal increase of CO2” as “by no means a pollutant” that “allowed the globalized greening of our planet in the last thirty years as well as the yield of harvests”.The People’s Party says it is “deeply attached to our land” but says it will instead focus “on the real problems: soil pollution by nitrates, plastics in the oceans, excessive urbanisation, permaculture, short production circuits to avoid wastage.”A staunch admirer of Donald Trump, Modrikamen is also an ally of his former chief strategist <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/steve-bannon" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Steve Bannon</a>. In 2018, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-parliament-bannon/belgian-lawyer-launches-trump-inspired-anti-eu-movement-idUSKBN1KE2BJ" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Modrikamen re-launched</a> <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/steve-bannon-the-movement-europe-populist-nationalism-trump-a8557156.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">The Movement,</a> a Brussels-based far-right organisation that aims to galvanise far-right populist ideology and anti-EU sentiment, with Bannon’s official backing. The People’s Party is officially affiliated to The Movement.In September 2018, Modrikamen <a href="https://twitter.com/modrikamen/status/1038054522596286464" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">tweeted</a> a picture with Bannon and Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s populist Northern League in Italy, after Salvini joined The Movement.Modrikamen previously <a href="https://twitter.com/modrikamen/status/1106979908071424000" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">shared articles</a> from Bannon’s Breitbart website, written by climate science denier <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/james-delingpole" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">James Delingpole</a>, which accused school climate strikers of being “ignorant and manipulated”, shared denialist theories about “<a href="https://twitter.com/modrikamen/status/1106285681842810880" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">global cooling</a>”, and called Thunberg’s activism “<a href="https://twitter.com/modrikamen/status/1106285681842810880" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">the biggest orchestrated bullshit in the history of humanity</a>”.Secretary general of the People’s Party and Modrikamen’s wife,Yasmine Dehaene- Modrikamen is also standing in the election.Dehaene-Modrikamen has cited the work of some of Europe’s most notorious climate science deniers, including <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/richard-tol" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Richard Tol</a>, a former advisor to the UK’s most prominent climate science denying group the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-policy-foundation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Global Warming Policy Foundation</a>, <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/bjorn-lomborg" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Bjorn Lomborg</a>, a Danish economist who argues it would be too expensive to tackle climate change in a meaningful way and French professor <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/2016/09/17/i-went-obscure-climate-science-denier-conference-and-what-i-learned" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Francois Gervais</a>, who argues that the climate emergency is “a delusion”.