The Weekly Forum - 3 April 2026
07 april 2026 | Forum for Democracy Intl
Europe is about to be plunged into a long and severe recession thanks to the Iran war, which the USA and Israel are losing. To be sure, Iran is suffering greatly but bombs continue to penetrate Israel’s so-called ‘Iron Dome’, including onto essential IDF military control centres; US fighter jets are shot out of the sky and AWACS surveillance planes destroyed on the ground; and thirteen US military bases across the Gulf have been severely damaged. The increasingly erratic American president, and the warmongering Israeli prime minister, appear to have launched their war of aggression with no strategic planning or exit strategy. Stated war aims change every day. Trump’s latest message to the Europeans – if you want Gulf oil, go and get it yourselves – spells the end of the Atlantic Alliance, which is the intellectual framework, or straitjacket, of swathes of the European political class, especially in the Netherlands where the governing VVD party is essentially a NATO regional office. Only FVD keeps focussed on reality. Ralf Dekker MP addressed these sombre developments in a speech in Parliament this week, stressing the dark times ahead and the overriding need to protect the Dutch people. Incredibly, as severe energy shortages loom, the Dutch government continues to refuse to open the Groningen gas field, the largest in Europe, all because of insane climate policy. Surely this is collective madness – or, rather, suicide.
Meanwhile, as if the future were not dark enough, enemies are trying to blacken the past as well. A recent vote in the UN General Assembly has referred to slavery as a crime against humanity. This will no doubt be used to demand reparations from European countries– but not from the Arab and African slave traders from whom they bought their workforce. The main problem with this is that it was the European states who brought an end to the slave trade – Britain first, then the whole of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Moreover, although it was then condemned in the name of ‘the principles of humanity’, the concept of a ‘crime against humanity’ was not formulated until 1945. Nullum crimen sine lege. As usual, only FVD understands and warns about the dangers this resolution represents. Tom Russcher MP and Ralf Dekker MP have put down questions to the Dutch government about it.
Read Ralf’s and Tom’s questions here
FVD International’s director John Laughland was once again a guest on Ian Proud’s ‘Peacemonger’ podcast recently. Ian is doing a fabulous job bringing together realist commentators to discuss current events. John and Ian discussed the ongoing outrage of EU sanctions against individuals, including EU citizens. These are punitive measures taken for explicitly political reasons (the EU defends them saying they are part of foreign policy). Although the EU denies the sanctions are punitive, which is a contradiction in terms since a sanction is a punishment, it also insists that breaking sanctions is a crime. All this is done outside any judicial framework: what judicial review there is takes place only after the event and usually fails to change the EU’s mind. In other words, the victim has to prove his innocence! Apparently this is the new Brussels understanding of the rule of law.
Watch John Laughland’s interview here
FVD International is sponsoring a conference on European values in Vienna next weekend. Please sign up and attend! The 39€ fee includes lunch and dinner. Thierry Baudet and John Laughland will both be speaking.
Sign up for the Vienna conference here
The Substack of our weekly podcast, The Forum and Friends, is now live. All our past podcasts are available there and we will be publishing articles, especially by our guests. Please visit the page and leave your comments.
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Stephen Baskerville was our guest on The Forum this week, to discuss why the Right always loses. If you missed it, watch back!