The Kalergi Plan, sometimes called the Coudenhove-Kalergi Conspiracy,
is a debunked
far-right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
,
antisemitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
,
white genocide conspiracy theory. The theory claims that Austrian-Japanese politician
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, creator of the
Paneuropean Union
The International Paneuropean Union, also referred to as the Pan-European Movement and the Pan-Europa Movement, is an international organisation and the oldest European unification movement. It began with the publishing of Richard von Coudenh ...
, concocted a plot to mix and replace
white Europeans with other races via immigration.
The
conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
* ...
is most often associated with European groups and parties, but it has also spread to North American politics.
Memes
A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...
promoting the conspiracy theory often incorporate misrepresentations of Kalergi's writings, such as the false claim he stated that Jews shall rule over Europe.
Origins
The conspiracy theory stems from a section of Kalergi's 1925 book ''Praktischer Idealismus'' ("Practical Idealism"), 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 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 Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals."
Modern far-right individuals seek to draw relationships between contemporary European policy-making and this quote.
Austrian
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
writer
Gerd Honsik wrote about the subject in his book ''Kalergi Plan'' (2005).
The conspiracy theory
The independent Italian newspaper ''
Linkiesta'' investigated the conspiracy theory and described it as a hoax which is comparable to the fabricated antisemitic document ''
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...
''. The
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...
describes the Kalergi plan as a distinctly European way of pushing the
white genocide conspiracy theory on the continent, with
white nationalists
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wav ...
quoting Coudenhove-Kalergi's writings out of context in order to assert that the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
's immigration policies were insidious plots that were hatched decades ago in order to destroy white people.
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.
Memes promoting the conspiracy theory often incorporate misreadings of Kalergi's writing, such as the false claim that Jews shall rule over Europe.
Recent history
In 2019, the right-wing nonprofit organization
Turning Point USA
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for Conservatism in the United States, conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgo ...
posted a photograph on
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
in which a person was holding a
beach ball that featured text promoting this conspiracy theory. The tweet was deleted soon after.
See also
*
Great Replacement
The Great Replacement (), also known as replacement theory or great replacement theory, is a debunked white nationalist far-right conspiracy theoryPT71. espoused by French author Renaud Camus. The original theory states that, with the complicit ...
* ''
The Camp of the Saints
''The Camp of the Saints'' () is a 1973 French dystopian fiction novel by author and explorer Jean Raspail. A speculative fictional account, it depicts the destruction of Western civilization through Third World mass immigration to France and ...
''
*
Miscegenation hoax
*
Demographic engineering
Footnotes
References
Further reading
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{{Conspiracy theories
Anti-immigration politics in Europe
Conspiracy theories in Europe
Conspiracy theories involving race and ethnicity
Cultural assimilation
Euroscepticism
Demographics of Europe
Nazism
Multiracial affairs
Neo-Nazi concepts
Political catchphrases
White genocide conspiracy theory
Anti-immigration politics in North America
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi
Antisemitic tropes