A new pan-European initiative demanding the complete halt of all non-European immigration and the mass deportation of migrants deemed unintegrated has launched at a remigration summit in Porto, Portugal — attracting prominent signatories from across the European right and reigniting one of the continent’s most divisive political debates.
Here is everything you need to know about the Save Europe Act, who is driving it and what it is actually asking for.
What is the Save Europe Act?
The Save Europe Act is a European Citizens’ Initiative — a legal mechanism under EU law — that demands “the political elite halt replacement migration, secure our borders, and protect the ethnocultural identity of European nations.”
Speaking to a reporter at the Remigration Summit in Porto, Vlaardingerbroek described the act as “essentially a legal proposal that we will send to the European Commission and demand that they transform into law.”
Its core demands are a total halt to all non-European immigration — both legal and illegal — and the creation of a Europe-wide remigration system. It also calls for the removal of what it describes as “social welfare incentives and benefits that function as pull factors for migration,” to reduce incentives for further arrivals and encourage those already present to leave. The initiative’s preamble frames the entire project as a defence of the “ethnocultural continuity” and “collective heritage” of Europe’s native peoples.
Announcing the launch on X, Vlaardingerbroek wrote: “It’s two minutes to midnight. The time for talking is over; the time for action is now.”
How does it work legally?
A European Citizens’ Initiative is a formal EU mechanism that allows citizens to petition the European Commission directly. The initiative’s initial goal is to reach 100,000 signatures before officially filing for registration, with the longer-term target being one million signatures from across the EU’s 27 member states — the threshold at which the European Commission is legally required to meet with the organisers and consider the demands. The initiative currently has nearly 44,000 signatures, with the strongest support coming from Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Vlaardingerbroek acknowledged the Commission could ultimately refuse to act even if the one million signature target is reached, but said identifying the “immense wish and support that there is for remigration” was valuable in itself. “Things are going too slow here in Europe when it comes to immigration and especially remigration,” she said. “Obviously, the borders are still wide open and nobody is being sent home. But the situation is deteriorating. We are about to become a minority in our own countries and we cannot just wait for politicians to save our lives.”
Who is behind it?
The driving force is Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch conservative commentator and activist who has become one of the most prominent voices on the European identitarian right. Trained as a lawyer, she previously worked as a legal adviser at a law firm focusing on human rights and civil litigation, and has appeared on programmes including Tucker Carlson Tonight. She has long argued that mass immigration represents an existential threat to European civilisation.
Co-presenting the initiative at the Porto summit was Martin Sellner, the Austrian far-right activist and leading figure of the identitarian movement in Europe, who declared at the summit: “Our mission is to bring clarity to one of the defining questions of our time. Our goal is to secure the ethnocultural continuity of the European nations.”
Other prominent endorsers include AfD politician Björn Höcke in Germany, Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński and — as its first British signatory — Rupert Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth and leader of Restore Britain.
What is the Remigration Summit?
The initiative was unveiled at RESUM26, the second Remigration Summit, held in Porto. The event drew right-wing activists, politicians and commentators from across Europe united around the concept of “remigration” — the organised return of migrants and their descendants to their countries of origin or ancestry, a policy demand that mainstream European governments have largely refused to entertain but which has gained significant traction on the European populist right in recent years.
What are the objections?
Critics have labelled the act far-right and legally unworkable, pointing to the enormous barriers posed by international human rights law, non-refoulement obligations — which prohibit the return of people to countries where they face serious harm — and the sheer logistical scale of the deportation programme it envisions. Some voices on the right have also questioned whether endorsing such a high-profile initiative risks splitting the anti-establishment vote at a time when parties like Reform UK are competing for the same electorate.
Whether the Save Europe Act gathers the momentum its founders are hoping for — or becomes another pressure campaign that falls short of forcing institutional change — will depend on how many Europeans are willing to sign their name to its demands.
