I, Claudia: US Funds Far-Right in Europe

The US State Department just launched a $5 million grant scheme to fund 
organisations in Europe — pushing "Western civilizational heritage," 
anti-migration narratives, and attacks on the free press. 

Right before Germany's September 2026 elections.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It is an official US government programme, 
published on state.gov, run by a bureau originally created to fight Soviet 
authoritarianism. That same bureau is now targeting allied democracies.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had to warn Washington publicly : stay out 
of our elections.

In this episode of Over Here, Over There, we look at what is actually in 
this grant scheme, who is behind it, why Germany is uniquely placed to 
recognise the danger — and what it means when the country that spent decades 
lecturing the world about election interference starts doing it to its friends.

Key Topics

• US foreign policy funding in Europe
• Germany's response to US influence
• The role of the State Department in European politics
• Historical context of US democracy promotion
• The impact of foreign funding on European elections
• Germany's constitutional resilience against external influence
• The evolution of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
• Implications for US-Germany relations

Sound Bites

• "Germany had to warn the US not to interfere with its elections"
• "Developing civilizational bonds, democratic resilience and rule of law in Europe"
• "Germany's constitutional model was built to be hard to break"

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