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LAST WEEK, THE European Union and India announced they had struck a sweeping free trade deal, which includes the reduction or abolition of tariffs on many products and the easing of access to the Indian market for European companies.
For the far right in Europe and beyond, though, one aspect of the deal represents a blueprint for an Indian “invasion” of the continent and confirmation that the racist ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory reflects reality.
In a speech delivered in New Delhi alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the deal included an “agreement on mobility” that will “facilitate the movement of students, researchers, seasonal and highly skilled workers”.
To that end, von der Leyen said the EU would set up an “EU legal gateway office” in India, which she described as “a one-stop hub to support Indian talent moving to Europe in full alignment with EU Member States’ needs and policies”.
A video of that part of von der Leyen’s speech quickly went viral in far-right circles online, especially on X, where many made alarmist claims about what the mobility agreement would mean for Europe.
The full text of the EU-India trade agreement has not yet been published but that hasn’t stopped prominent racists from speculating that it contains plans for the “genocide” of white Europeans through demographic replacement.
Also, by characterising EU leaders as the orchestrators of an “invasion” designed to wipe out the white people of Europe, those on the far right show they are either wilfully ignorant of the truth about Europe’s border policies, or fundamentally disconnected from reality.
According to the government of India, the deals mobility aspect will allow Indian workers employed by Indian companies based in Europe to move there. The industries include IT, research and development and other services.
“The framework eases movement of employees (and their spouses and dependents) of Indian Corporates established in the EU in all services sectors,” the Indian government’s website says.
“For business entities aiming to provide services under a contract to EU clients, India can access 37 sub-sectors including IT, business, and professional services.”
Independent professionals intending to provide services to EU clients “get certainty in 17 subsectors”, which include IT, R&D, and higher education, the Indian government’s description reads.
In her speech, von der Leyen said the EU would set up an “EU legal gateway office” in India, which she described as “a one-stop hub to support Indian talent moving to Europe in full alignment with EU Member States’ needs and policies”.
NEW - EU signs an "agreement on mobility," with India facilitating "the movement of students, researchers, seasonal and highly skilled workers," and launches the "first EU Legal Gateway Office in India" to support Indian talent moving to Europe." pic.twitter.com/rSGEEIV2nQ
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 27, 2026
Some widely shared posts on X made reference to the “Great Replacement” and, in particular, a dystopian novel that describes the destruction of the West through mass immigration from poorer parts of the world, The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail.
In the 1973 novel, boatloads of people from India make the journey to France in search of a more prosperous life. The media and political establishment, especially in Paris, are sympathetic to the migrants, while people in the less metropolitan south flee north in fear.
When they arrive in France, the Indians sweep northwards, take over the country and overthrow the government. This is repeated across Europe and in the US.
The book is popular with white supremacists.
“This is, legit, the plot of Camp of the Saints,” wrote Anthony J Constantini of the American think tank the Bull Moose Project in a post on X responding to von der Leyen’s speech.
Another post by an anonymous user featured the cover of the novel imposed on a book being read by an anime character.
European white nationalists were quick to react to the clip of von der Leyen.
Dries Van Langenhove, a self-described “remigration activist” from Belgium and founder of a far-right Flemish nationalist youth organisation, described von der Leyen’s announcement as “treason”.
“In April, I must face criminal court for saying the Great Replacement is intentional (= “hatespeech”). What is this if not intentionally replacing Europeans?” he said in another post that received more than 5,000 likes and 800 reposts.
Remigration is a policy being advocated by ethnonationalists in Europe and beyond that envisages the expulsion of non-white people from Western countries en masse, regardless of their place of birth, legal status, or even citizenship.
Dutch far-right activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, who describes herself as part of “Generation Remigration”, said von der Leyen was “absolutely hell-bent on destroying Europe”.
“After all of Africa and the Middle East was welcomed in, now the Indians have to be imported. We need to abolish the EU,” she said in a post on X that garnered 52,000 ‘likes’ and 10,000 reposts.
Another European extremist, Henrik Palmgren from Sweden, called for remigration while claiming the EU-India deal was designed to “fast-track a legal and orderly invasion of millions of Indians into the EU”.
Palmgren and his wife, American far-right conspiracy theorist Lana Lokteff, founded the white supremacist media company Red Ice, which often pushes the neo-Nazi “White Genocide” theory – a more explicitly antisemitic form of the “Great Replacement”.
In a video posted on X in which he uses a racial slur to refer to Indians, Palgren says that, because of deals like the EU-India agreement, “legal migration is far more serious and genocidal than illegal migration”.
“If these traitors in the EU could, they would import all of them,” he says.
Australian anti-immigration influencer and activist Hugo Lennon, who goes by Auspill online, wrote a post on X saying:
“It’s like they’re trying to summon Hitler.”
As the main proponents of remigration in Ireland, members of the far-right National Party echoed the claims of their counterparts abroad.
“The numbers don’t lie. Uncontrolled immigration of Indians into Europe will make Europe unrecognisable in a generation,” National Party member Paul McWeeney wrote on X.
EU bureaucrats have hobbled native industry so badly through carbon taxes, over regulation, immigration, and Russiaphobia that they desperately signed a 'trade' deal with one of the worlds worst polluters and basically opened the door for Indian colonisation of Europe. pic.twitter.com/aDc2Cxm9ii
— Paul McWeeney NP 🇮🇪 (@PaulMcWeeneyNP) January 27, 2026
The National Party’s account on X described the agreement as one designed “to flood Europe with economic migrants from the Indian subcontinent”.
“In a very short time they will utterly transform our society. By sheer numbers and ethnic nepotism they will swamp us demographically, quickly gaining control of county councils, real estate assets, media, etc.” the party said.
“Their willingness to play the race card will give them privileges in law above the native Irish person.
“Very soon, if nothing is done, our people will no longer have a country.”
Far-right social media personality Mick O’Keefe also responded to the clip of von der Leyen, posting a video of Indian immigrants celebrating the Ganesh Festival in Paris, during which coconuts are traditionally smashed open on the ground.
“This is footage from France, even before the deal was signed Europe had a big problem. But now, Europe is going to be absolutely destroyed,” O’Keefe said.
Anti-immigration activists continue to portray the EU as an institution that actively encourages inward migration, especially by asylum seekers.
The reality is the opposite is true, as the EU Migration and Asylum Pact is bringing in many limitations on inward migration.
Prior to the announcement of the trade deal with India, which has been two decades in the making, the main focus of racist activists in Europe has been the Migration Pact.
If you consume a strict diet of far-right misinformation, you might well believe that the Pact is a means of increasing the number of asylum seekers coming into Europe.
In reality, the Pact represents a turn away from the EU member states’ obligations to asylum seekers, treats irregular migration as a security issue – rather than one concerning human rights – and was condemned by every relevant human rights organisation.
Just over 160 civil society organisations signed an open letter urging MEPs to reject the Pact because it “creates a system whereby the right to seek asylum in the EU is severely threatened and will engender a proliferation of human rights violations against people across Europe due to their migration status”.
Ministers and leaders across the EU, including Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, have indicated their desire to weaken the European Convention on Human Rights.
Hostile border policies have become the norm across the EU but if you were to listen to the complaints from the far right, you would think the borders were wide open and its leaders were rolling out the red carpet.
The Migration and Asylum Pact reads like a wishlist for people opposed to immigration, and yet those people are still not happy.
As many of them said last week in response to the India deal, ethnic cleansing is the only thing that would truly satisfy them.
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