Kalergi Plan

File:Graf Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894–1972) ~1930.jpg, supposed creator of the plan, pictured {{circa}} 1930]]

The Kalergi Plan, sometimes called the Coudenhove-Kalergi Conspiracy,{{cite web |last1=Gaston |first1=Sophia |title=Out of the Shadows: Conspiracy Thinking on Immigration |url=https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Out-of-the-Shadows-Conspiracy-thinking-on-immigration.pdf |publisher=Henry Jackson Society |date=November 2018}} is a debunked far-right, antisemitic, white genocide conspiracy theory.{{cite web|url=https://hopenothate.org.uk/2019/04/18/exposed-for-britain-and-white-genocide-conspiracy-theory/|title=EXPOSED: For Britain and the "White Genocide" Conspiracy Theory|website=Hope not hate|date=29 August 2022|quote=large groups of people being radicalised daily and hourly, by far-right and neo-Nazi propaganda and a ubiquitous belief in wild conspiracy theories such as the Kalergi Plan|access-date=14 June 2019|archive-date=29 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200329051455/https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/facebook-turns-leavers-into-brexit-extremists-1-5322487|url-status=dead}}.{{cite web|url=http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/tpusa-shares-photo-with-visual-nod-to-white-genocide-conspiracy-theory/ |title=TPUSA Shares Photo with Visual Nod to 'White Genocide' Conspiracy Theory which revolves around the philosophy and political organizing of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an early 1900s Austrian politician who founded and presided over the Paneuropean Union. Some credit Kalergi for inspiring the later formation of the European Union|date=12 April 2019}} The theory claims that Austrian-Japanese politician Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, creator of the Paneuropean Union, concocted a plot to mix and replace white Europeans with other races via immigration.{{cite web|url=https://www.newsweek.com/candace-owens-white-genocide-turning-piint-1394703|title=Organization Candace Owens Represents Shares, Then Deletes, Photo Promoting White Genocide Conspiracy Days After Her Testimony |website=Newsweek|date=12 April 2019|quote=Believers in the Kalergi plan think that Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an Austrian politician in the early 1900s, constructed a plan to destroy white people in Europe by encouraging immigration}} The conspiracy theory is most often associated with European groups and parties, but it has also spread to North American politics.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-45841641 |title=Qué es el "plan de Kalergi", la teoría conspirativa que usan los partidos de ultraderecha contra la Unión Europea |language=es|trans-title=What is the "Kalergi plan", the conspiracy theory used by the extreme right parties against the European Union|publisher=BBC Mundo|date=October 22, 2018|quote=It is the conspiracy theory known as "Kalergi's plan", which, for just over a decade, has been circulated among the members of several European nationalist and far-right parties}}

Memes promoting the conspiracy theory often incorporate misrepresentations of Kalergi's writings; such as the false claim he stated that Jews shall rule over Europe.{{Cite web |last=Tvauri |first=Tinatin |date=2022-05-13 |title=“The Kalergi Plan” - A Conspiracy Theory On The Plan About The Elimination Of The White Race {{!}} Mythdetector.com |url=https://mythdetector.com/en/the-kalergi-plan-a-conspiracy-theory-on-the-plan-about-the-elimination-of-the-white-race/ |access-date=2025-05-26 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Romero |first=Luiz |date=24 January 2022 |title=No, there is no ‘Kalergi plan’ to replace Europeans |url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/24/tiktok-posts/no-there-no-kalergi-plan-replace-europeans-migrant/ |access-date=2025-05-26 |website=PolitiFact |language=en-US}}

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{{efn|Kalergi uses the German word {{lang|de|Kasten}}, which means "castes" and not "social 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 Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals."{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/Coudenhove-Kalergi-Praktischer_Idealismus-1925/page/n23/mode/2up |title=Praktischer Idealismus |first=R. N. |last=Coudenhove-Kalergi |year=1925 |publisher=Paneuropa-Verlag |location=Vienna-Leipzig |pages=22–23 |language=de |quote={{lang|de|Der Mensch der fernen Zukunft wird Mischling sein. Die heutigen Rassen und Kasten werden der zunehmenden Überwindung von Raum, Zeit und Vorurteil zum Opfer fallen. Die eurasisch-negroide Zukunftsrasse, äusserlich dem altägyptischen ähnlich, wird die Vielfalt der Völker durch eine Vielfalt der Persönlichkeiten ersetzen}} }} Modern far-right individuals seek to draw relationships between contemporary European policy-making and this quote.

Austrian neo-Nazi writer Gerd Honsik wrote about the subject in his book Kalergi Plan (2005).{{cite web|url=https://www.ilpost.it/2018/01/16/piano-kalergi/|title=Che cos'è – o sarebbe – il "Piano Kalergi" |language=it|trans-title=What is - or would be - the "Kalergi Plan"|publisher=Il Post|date=January 16, 2018}}

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.{{cite web |date=September 28, 2015 |title=Cos'è il piano Kalergi, la bufala dei migranti che uccideranno gli europei |trans-title=What is the Kalergi plan, the hoax about migrants killing Europeans |url=https://www.linkiesta.it/it/article/2015/09/28/cose-il-piano-kalergi-la-bufala-dei-migranti-che-uccideranno-gli-europ/27568/ |publisher=Linkiesta |language=it}} The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Kalergi plan as a distinctly European way of pushing the white genocide conspiracy theory on the continent, with white nationalists quoting Coudenhove-Kalergi's writings out of context in order to assert that the European Union's immigration policies were insidious plots that were hatched decades ago in order to destroy white people.{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/04/19/day-trope-white-nationalist-memes-thrive-reddits-rthedonald |title=Day of the trope: White nationalist memes thrive on Reddit's r/The_Donald |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center|date=19 April 2019|quote=With respect to Europe, the mythology of the “Kalergi plan” plays a similar role in constructing the “white genocide” narrative. Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi was an Austrian noble and early advocate of European integration. White nationalists mine his writings for evidence that the European Union is the culmination of a nefarious “plan” for white genocide put into motion decades ago.}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2019/04/18/exposed-for-britain-and-white-genocide-conspiracy-theory/|title=EXPOSED: For Britain and the "White Genocide" Conspiracy Theory|date=18 April 2019|publisher=Hope Not Hate|quote=racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories have since developed that allege that Coudenhove-Kalergi devised a long-term scheme to undermine the white race by encouraging immigration into Europe, creating a populous devoid of identity who would supposedly be easily ruled by Jewish overlords.}}

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 posted a photograph on Twitter in which a person was holding a beach ball that featured text promoting this conspiracy theory. The tweet was deleted soon after.{{Cite web|date=2019-04-12|title=Turning Point USA plug anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on Twitter|url=https://spectator.us/turning-point-usa-kalergi-plan/|access-date=2020-12-05|website=Spectator USA|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-07-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726150544/https://spectator.us/turning-point-usa-kalergi-plan/|url-status=dead}}

Kalergi Plan

Origins

The conspiracy theory

Recent history

See also

Footnotes

References

Further reading