Pembrokeshire-born former BBC presenter Jamie Owen has embarked on a ‘grand tour’ of Europe for a new TV documentary.
Jamie has teamed up with ex-Western Telegraph journalist Simon Morris for a two-part documentary abut the rise of far right political parties in Europe.
On a scale attempted by few other programme makers, Rise of the Far Right visits four countries to ask searching questions to find out if Europe is heading back to its fascist past, including quizzing members of Germany’s AfD party if they are Nazis.
Jamie, who was brought up in Pembroke Dock and was with BBC Wales for nearly 30 years – is now the news anchor of the international TV network CGTN Europe.
This is Jamie and former BBC colleague Simon’s latest documentary project. Their last film - The Secret Betrayal -won a medal at the New York Documentary Awards in 2023.
Rise of the Far Right was shot over the first six months of this year, as voters in the EU’s 27 countries prepared to elect new members of the European parliament.
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.”
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, Jamie meets migrants coming fresh off the boat, hoping for a better life.
Heading north to Rome and the 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 and 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.
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 as 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.
Watch Rise of the Far Right on CGTN America and You Tube
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