The Make Europe Healthy Again (MEHA) launch at the European Parliament in Brussels last week brought together what is now a familiar alliance of far-right politicians, anti-vaxxers and alternative health practitioners. 

Leaders of Make America Health Again (MAHA), the movement behind US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, were prominent at the launch, and several are members of MEHA’s steering committee and international advisory board.

The Patriots for Europe Foundation, a right-wing alliance led by the Hungarian government, hosted the launch.

MEHA’s mission is to “nurture a Europe where people reclaim their power, their voice, their health, and their traditions. 

“By protecting the essentials of life – clean food, water, air, earth, space, and safe communities – we help to empower nations to build supportive systems that break cycles of chronic disease, promote vitality, and honour culture, sovereignty, peace, and human dignity,” MEHA’s mission statement adds.

MEHA’s founder and president, Dr Maria Hubmer-Mogg, is an anti-vaccine campaigner and far-right Austrian politician who has opposed European Union sanctions on Russia and wants tougher immigration policies.

She claims that a large number of people are suffering from “post-vaccine syndrome” since COVID-19, and is opposed to the World Health Organization (WHO).

MEHA vice-president is Dutch politician Rob Roos, who was vice-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group until mid-2024, when his term as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) ended. 

MEHA lists the Global Wellness Forum (GWF) as its “partner”, and GWF co-founder Sayer Ji is also on MEHA’s steering committee.

Ji campaigned against vaccine mandates during the pandemic alongside other GWF leaders, including osteopath Sherri Tenpenny, identified as one of the most prolific sources of anti-vax information on social media during COVID-19. Tenpenny had her medical license suspended after claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine “magnetised” people.

The MEHA 17-person steering committee is dominated by European anti-vaxxers, including Dr Aseem Malhotra.

Seven of the steering committee are Americans, including MAHA leader Dr Robert Malone, who Kennedy controversially appointed to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) after he fired all 17  existing members.

Malone has promoted several false and alarmist claims about COVID-19 vaccines, and promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as SARS-CO-V2 treatments despite numerous studies showing they did not work.

Recently, Malone controversially claimed that an eight-year-old child, Daisy Hildebrand, who died of measles in Texas had died of sepsis and blamed a medical institution for mismanaging her illness. 

Others Americans on the steering committee include Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organisation started by Kennedy; Tony Lyons, MAHA political action committee (PAC) co-chair; Reggie Littlejohn, an anti-abortion and “anti-globalist” campaigner, and Tom Harrington from the right-wing think-tank Brownstone Institute, which became an important bridge between conservative supporters of Donald Trump and anti-vax libertarians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian local councillor Adrian McRae, who campaigned against the COVID-19 vaccine and is known for his pro-Russian views, is also on the advisory committee.

‘Totalitarianism’

Speakers at the launch stressed the need to break the influence of the pharmaceutical industry over health, and railed against the “totalitarianism” of “unelected globalist” institutions, including the WHO and the European Commission.

Hubmer-Mogg called for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to be funded by the EU not pharmaceutical companies. Over 90% of the EMA’s operating costs are covered by fees charged to companies for the evaluation of their applications for marketing authorisation and monitoring the safety of medicines, and for scientific advisory services.

However, MEHA does not want pharmaceutical companies to conduct clinical trials on medicines, although it is these companies that develop and will ultimately profit from new medicines.

“No more conflict of interest, no more concealment of side effects, no more pharma-financed studies,” Hubmer-Mogg concluded.

Malhotra built on this theme, claiming in an hour-long keynote address that “evidence-based medicine… has become an illusion. It has become hijacked by powerful commercial vested interests, and the degree of influence of these commercial interests also means that we have created a pandemic of misinformed doctors and, unwittingly, misinformed and harmed patients”.

Steering committee member Mattias Desmet told the launch that the WHO’s One Health policy was “evidence” of a “globalist institution” trying to impose its one-size-fits-all approach to health. However, One Health simply refers to the recognition that the health of people, animals and ecosystems are closely linked and often need to be addressed together.

During the pandemic, Desmet, a Belgian psychologist, claimed that official government policies on the COVID-19 pandemic were “collective insanity” that he called “mass formation”.