Old Breconian launches new TV series.

Rise of the Far Right (click here)

Is Europe heading back to its fascist past? Are Germany’s AfD Nazis? Is Europe’s culture really about to be swamped? Could far right parties actually ever deliver their promises to radically cut immigration?

 Those are the questions posed in a new two-part CGTN documentary about the rise of the far right in Europe on a scale attempted by few other programme-makers.

 Covering four countries and fronted by CGTN Europe’s news anchor Jamie Owen, it was shot over the first six months of the year as voters in the EU’s 27 countries prepared to elect new members of the European parliament.

 But it starts with the human stories of migrants risking everything to reach Europe. At the continent’s southern border on the Italian island of Lampedusa, Owen meets migrants coming fresh off the boat, hoping for a better life.

 Heading north to Rome and the beautiful Abruzzo region he challenges Brothers of Italy activists about claims of fascism and racism and asks why Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is still popular despite failing to cut immigration.

 In the second film he heads to Germany, where he meets AfD supporters and opponents as the party launches its European parliament campaign in the small southern town of Donaueschingen. In Berlin, Dresden and Erfurt he sees how both guilt and nationalism make the Nazi past an inescapable issue for contemporary German politics.

 In France he asks young National Rally supporters why so many more of them are backing the far right as Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella kick off their European campaign in Marseille. He’s with left wing Popular Front supporters in Paris on the night they beat the RN in July’s national poll and he hears the fears - and sometimes surprising views - of people with migrant ancestry.

 In Lisbon he’s with the Chega party on the night they make their historic breakthrough in Portugal’s parliamentary election, becoming the country’s first successful far right party in half a century. He quizzes Portugal’s youngest MP on the party’s attitude to migrants.

 Part travelogue, part analysis, the two-part documentary is an ambitious attempt to tell an important political story using the best qualities of film making: but always rooted in real human experience.

 Jamie Owen said: ‘This is a grand tour across Europe to investigate one of the most unstable periods in international politics.  This is the story of ordinary people who are searching for a new life in another country - and the story of ordinary people in Europe who fear a threat to their very way of life.’

 This is his latest documentary project. His last film -The Secret Betrayal won a medal at the New York Documentary Awards in 2023

 Rise of the Far Right on CGTN America and You Tube