The Americans Shaping Europe’s Far-Right Ecosystem

In an opinion podcast published by The New York Times last October, Pappin was described as “a national conservative dedicated to furthering MAGA’s success in the United States.” The Journal of Illiberalism Studies has similarly argued that he “acts as an archetypal trans-Atlantic actor who is capable of spreading his postliberal ideology to a wide audience.” In a 2023 article titled In God We Trust, the president of HIIA defined postliberalism as an opposition to “liberal assumptions and prescriptions.”

Pappin has also repeatedly participated in the transatlantic far-right conference circuit, including CPAC Hungary in 2023 and 2024, as well as National Conservatism conferences in Brussels (2022 and 2024) and Washington (2024).

The HIIA has maintained clear ties with the Trump administration. Its headquarters in Budapest have hosted several U.S. officials, including Sarah B. Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy; Samuel D. Samson, senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of State, and Robert J. Palladino, former Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy of the U.S. to Hungary.

Danube Institute (Hungary)

The Danube Institute operates as a think tank pushing Orbán’s anti-rights and anti-woman agenda and builds ties with international allies, including through a cooperation agreement with the Heritage Foundation — behind the authoritarian Project 2025 — signed in 2023.

American right-wing blogger Rod Dreher serves as director of the institute’s Network Project. Dreher has been described as an early friend and advisor to U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

Melissa O’Sullivan serves as the organization’s Deputy Director. Her husband is the British journalist John O’Sullivan, the institute’s president and founder, who previously served as a special adviser and speechwriter to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

According to the institute website, Melissa O’Sullivan’s day-to-day work in Budapest involves “program development and execution, working with incoming guest speakers and supporting all staff.” She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from the University of Alabama.

By hosting U.S. far-right figures as visiting fellows, the institute has positioned itself as a conduit between Trumpist and Orbánist ideas. In 2024, it hosted Melissa Ford, at the time a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation — a group linked to Project 2025 — who now leads the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute. It also welcomed Arthur Milikh, executive director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, another promoter of Project 2025.

Another American currently affiliated with the institute is Sean Nottoli, serving as a visiting fellow. According to his LinkedIn profile, Nottoli worked as a regional director for the Trump Campaign in Atlanta during the 2024 election and describes himself as an expert on American and Conservative politics.

Nicolas Conquer – Western Arc (France)

The Western Arc, a recently founded French think tank, explicitly draws inspiration from the U.S. far-right ecosystem. On its website, the organization describes itself as a “conservative do-tank inspired by MAGA America.”

The think tank looks at the “strategic effectiveness” of U.S. institutions such as the Heritage Foundation and the Claremont Institute, framing its mission as an effort to “revive the soul of the West in the face of technocratic and globalist uprooting.”

Behind the project is Nicolas Conquer, a French-American citizen and a former media director for Republicans Overseas France, the Republican Party’s official representation in France.

Conquer told Politico he had discussed specific projects that could receive American funding with several U.S. State Department officials.

Mike Gonzalez – Fundación Disenso (Spain)

Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, sits on the international advisory board of Fundación Disenso (Disenso Foundation), a Spanish think tank linked to the far-right Vox party. Born in Cuba, Gonzalez emigrated to the U.S. in 1974.

Before joining the Heritage Foundation in 2009, he worked for 20 years as a journalist. He then entered public service during the administration of President George W. Bush, working as a speechwriter at the Securities and Exchange Commission and at the State Department’s European Bureau.

Gonzalez is one of the architects of Project 2025. He wrote the section on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, outlining proposals to dismantle America’s free press, including legal and constitutional strategies that could survive court challenges.

In that section, Gonzalez criticized federal funding for public broadcasting, describing it as “half a billion dollars squandered on leftist opinion each year,” and arguing that the outlets had lost their educational value.

Fundación Disenso has played a key role in promoting alliances among far-right organizations in Latin America. Through the Foro Madrid initiative, Vox and Disenso present the network as a conservative counterweight to former left-wing regional alliances associated with leaders such as Brazil’s Lula da Silva, former Uruguayan President José Mujica, and Bolivia’s Evo Morales.

Ordo Iuris (Poland)

Founded in Poland in 2013, Ordo Iuris is a far-right legal and advocacy think tank that seeks to advance anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-woman policies through the courts. In Eastern Europe, the organization has become a key hub for promoting anti-rights strategic litigation and has lobbied to tighten Poland’s abortion laws.

Building on its influence at home, the organization has expanded across Eastern Europe, including activities in Croatia. Ordo Iuris has also developed a broader international footprint, opening an office in Brussels to influence EU institutions and establishing a U.S-based non-profit entity in New York under the name Ordo Iuris International Foundation.

The American organization lists Artie Hasegawa, a New York-based accountant, as Treasurer Director of its U.S. branch, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also leads another U.S. non-profit, the ICONNEL Catholic Foundation, which runs programs including senior care job placement services, temporary housing, and Catholic spiritual and educational programs.

The Ordo Iuris Foundation has also been a client of Ed Martin Law Firm LLC, a legal practice run by Edward Martin. Martin currently serves as a pardon attorney at the Department of Justice. He previously held the role of Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he oversaw the dismissal of charges tied to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

According to the Washington Post, before taking office Martin boosted members of Germany’s AfD, Poland’s Law and Justice, and Viktor Orbán’s party in Hungary.

Martin is now facing discipline proceedings from the Washington, D.C., Bar over a letter threatening to stop hiring Georgetown Law students because of the school’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs, a violation of the First Amendment, the DC Bar said.

Political Network for Values (Spain and U.S.)

Political Network for Values (PNfV) is a transnational lobbying platform that connects far-right actors and organizations worldwide. It promotes a conservative Christian agenda opposing LGBTQ+ rights, women’s bodily autonomy, and euthanasia, while defending a traditional family model.

Although the organization operates globally, its headquarters are located in Madrid (Spain). At the same time, PNfV is also registered in the U.S. as a nonprofit corporation in Massachusetts, listing an address in Frisco, Texas.

PNfV is currently led by Stephen Bartulica, a Croatian MEP from the far-right party Dom i Nacionalno Okupljanje (Home and National Rally, DOMiNO) and a member of the far-right Catholic movement Opus Dei.

The network board of directors includes several high-profile U.S. evangelical figures, among them Sharon Slater (president of Family Watch International), Brian Brown (president of the International Organization for the Family/World Congress of Families), and Benjamin Bull (general counsel of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation).

Bull previously worked with Alliance Defending Freedom and its affiliated organization, ADF International, a U.S.-based legal group at the heart of a powerful international network dedicated to rolling back women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.

Slater holds openly homophobic views and has promoted conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ people. She has written false statements portraying LGBTQ+ individuals as disease-prone, “significantly more promiscuous,” and “significantly more likely to engage in pedophilia.”

The president of Family Watch International was involved in the political organizing behind the Ugandan law that criminalized LGBTQ+ people. Although Slater denies any connection with it, CNN reported that her organization assisted members of parliament in pushing the legislation and shaping its wording.

Another board member, Brian Brown, is a supporter of Putin’s persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Russia, and regularly compares homosexuality to pedophilia.

The PNfV advisory board also includes U.S. Republican politician Amy Sinclair, a state senator from Iowa. In 2023, Sinclair defended legislation in Iowa banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, arguing that “neither the U.S. Constitution, nor Iowa’s state Constitution provides any right to reproductive freedom.”

CitizenGO (Spain)

CitizenGO is an anti-LGBTQ+ organization founded in 2013. Based in Spain, the group operates mainly through online petitions, but also runs aggressive offline campaigns. It has staged protests outside abortion clinics in Madrid, and sent toy fetuses covered in red liquid to simulate blood to lawmakers.

The organization has also promoted so-called “conversion therapies,” the dangerous practice of attempting to change sexual orientation or identity that has been described as akin to torture by a UN special rapporteur and banned in dozens of countries. Its anti-trans rhetoric has been particularly aggressive, gaining notoriety for buses covered with transphobic messages.

Founded by the Spaniard Ignacio Arsuaga, who hosted the World Congress of Families (WCF) in Madrid in 2012, CitizenGO remains deeply connected to the International Organization for the Family (IOF), the umbrella organization behind the World Congress of Families, where Arsuaga serves as a board member. These connections are further reinforced through overlapping leadership structures.

Brian Brown, the head of the U.S.-based WCF, is a member of the CitizenGO Board of Trustees. The board also includes Gualberto García, who served as the Holy See’s legal representative to the Organisation of American States (OAS) from 2014 and 2020. On LinkedIn, he describes himself as a “multidisciplinary attorney and an expert policy analyst,” and as a  first-generation immigrant to the U.S.

CitizenGO has operated a U.S.-based non-profit branch since 2021, registered in Arlington, Virginia. In February, the group was formally registered with the OAS through this entity, granting it access to civil society events.

Although he does not appear as an official board member, tax records show that Gregory Mertz has served as secretary of the CitizenGO’s U.S. nonprofit. Mertz is also a city councilman in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. His LinkedIn profile states that he worked with CitizenGO from 2013 to 2023 as a copywriter, while media reports have identified him as the organization’s U.S. campaigns director.

Christian Council International (Netherlands and the U.S.)

Christian Council International (CCI) is a Netherlands-founded anti-woman and anti-LGBTQ+ organization that is also registered in the U.S. and, more recently, in Canada, where it was incorporated in 2025.

On its website, the group argues that “states must put anything in their power to help women avoid abortion,” and that “marriage between one man and one woman is the most ideal basis for a stable society.” CCI holds special consultative status at the United Nations, and is accredited to the European Parliament.

It is one of the anti-rights organizations operating in Africa, where the group has staff based in Nairobi (Kenya) developing what it describes as “CCI’s Pan-African Network internationally.”

Its president, Henk Jan van Schothorst, took part in the latest edition of the Pan-African Conference on Family Values in Nairobi in May 2025, which brought together some of the most influential anti-rights organizations from the U.S., Africa and Europe, including Family Research Council, Family Watch International, the Center for Family and Human Rights, Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI), and the Institute for Women’s Health (IWH).

The organization was founded in 2013 by van Schothorst and Todd Huizinga, a former U.S. diplomat in Europe. According to the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, CCI played a pivotal role in the creation of the Dutch far-right political party Forum voor Democratie (FvD).

Huizinga does not appear to hold a current role in CCI. However, the organization’s current board of directors includes two U.S.-based members: George Roller, and John Van Der Brink.

Roller has worked in Miami as an attorney and English teacher. Within CCI, he is described as being  “active in public policy and committed to advancing life, family and freedom.”

Previously, he served as executive director at the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship in Washington, D.C. He later carried out “missionary work” on Capitol Hill as interim executive director of Hope to the Hill.

His work in Washington granted him access to influential figures in U.S. politics, as the organization served members of Congress and staffers. In a 2007 interview, Roller explained that many of the activities he organized were “designed to help the members of Congress to be able to express their faith”.

He described his work as a “privilege,” noting that it allowed them, among other things, to “help to shape them and mold them.”

John Van Der Brink, for his part, has a long career in Christian education. He is currently the administrator of the Netherlands Reformed Christian School in Pompton Plains in New Jersey.

European Conservative (Hungary) and CEU CEFAS (Spain) – Alvino-Mario Fantini

Alvino-Mario Fantini, an Italian-American philosopher and editor-in-chief of The European Conservative. serves on the editorial board of the Center for Studies, Training and Social Analysis (CEFAS), a research center affiliated with Spain’s private CEU University.

In recent years, CEFAS has emerged as an active hub linking far-right organizations, think tanks, and political actors across Europe and beyond. It has built close ties with the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation: in November 2025, its president, Kevin Roberts participated in a conference at CEU University, while CEFAS has also sent students to the Heritage Foundation  training programs.

At the same time, the center has cultivated connections with actors aligned with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, including the Danube Institute, the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), and the Center for Fundamental Rights.

The European Conservative, edited by Fantini, is an English-language right-wing publication with strong ties to the Orbán regime. The outlet was registered by MCC, a private Hungarian educational institution and think tank closely linked to the Hungarian government. According to media reports, a state-connected foundation has funneled millions of euros into the outlet.

Fantini, a Vermont native, has worked as an editor and speechwriter for international organisations. His articles have appeared in publications such as The American Spectator, Catholic World Report, The American Conservative and The Wall Street Journal, according to his CEU profile.

He has described The European Conservative as a platform for “dissident voices” and “heterodox political opinions,” in remarks delivered at the 2021 National Conservatism Conference. He also spoke at the Transatlantic Summit organized by the Political Network for Values (PNfV) at the European Parliament in February.

Austrian Economics Center (Austria)

The Austrian Economics Center is a Vienna-based institute that publishes economic analysis and commentary grounded in the Austrian School of Economics, a line of thought that opposes government intervention in the economy, is skeptical of state power, and emphasizes the role of individuals. According to an analysis by DeSmog, the institution’s board includes several figures known for their climate change skepticism.

Economist Barbara Kolm leads the institute. A former Vice President of the Austrian Central Bank (2018 to 2023), she entered in the Austrian National Council  as a representative of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria, FPÖ), a far-right party with a history of holding Nazi sympathies.

Although the FPÖ secured first place in the 2024 general election with 28.8 percent of the vote, it remained out of power after three centrist parties agreed to form a coalition government without it.

Media reports suggest that Kolm has played a role in shaping the FPÖ’s economic repositioning, particularly its move toward neoliberal policies. In parallel, she has deepened her ties to the transnational far right, taking part in a CPAC Hungary 2025 panel titled “The Age of Patriots.”

The center’s website lists Daniel J. Mitchell among its senior fellows. Mitchell was a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the organization behind Project 2025, from 1990 to 2006, and later spent a decade in the same role at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Mitchell has also expressed support for the economic agenda of Argentine President Javier Milei, who has promoted a far-right populist agenda.

Another U.S.-based senior fellow at the Austrian Economics Center is Jeffrey Tucker,  president of the Brownstone Institute, who also served as a research fellow at the Acton Institute and policy adviser of the Heartland Institute.