The Bilderberg Group

The first Bilderberg conference took place from May 29 to 31, 1954, at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, hence its name. It was organized by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, the Polish diplomat Joseph Retinger, former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland, and the businessman David Rockefeller. The initial objective was to foster dialogue between Europe and North America in the context of the Cold War and to promote Atlantism.

Meetings are held annually in luxury hotels, behind closed doors, and under the Chatham House Rule (participants can use the information received but must not reveal the identity of those who communicated it). The press is not invited, and no official record was published until recently. Since the 2010s, an official website (bilderbergmeetings.org) publishes lists of participants and general discussion themes.

Notable participants over the years include: Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Bill Clinton (prior to his presidency, in 1991), Tony Blair (prior to assuming power), Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Mario Draghi, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Eric Schmidt, and numerous CEOs of major corporations, central bank directors, ministers, and journalists.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Bilderberg emerged from the 1960s and were popularized by authors like Phyllis Schlafly and Dan Smoot in the United States. They intensified in the 2000s with authors like Daniel Estulin ('The True Story of the Bilderberg Group', 2005) and the journalist Jim Tucker. Alex Jones organizes demonstrations outside the hotels where the meetings are held.

The main allegations are: (1) the participants secretly decide on the global political and economic direction, (2) future leaders are chosen at these meetings (Clinton in 1991, Blair, Macron), (3) decisions made violate democratic sovereignty, (4) the lack of transparency proves malicious intentions.

Defenders of the group claim that it is a simple informal discussion forum, comparable to the Davos forums, where participants exchange ideas without decision-making power.