Global elites representing the upper echelons of power in politics, banking, big tech, media, industry, and academia converged this week in Madrid, Spain to discuss Artificial Intelligence, the “future of warfare”, and more at the shadowy Bilderberg Meeting as the “off the record” conference turns 70 years old.

Founded in 1954 with a meeting hosted by Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands in the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Dutch village of Oosterbeek, the annual meeting of the Bilderberg Group is believed to be a driving force behind numerous globalist projects.

Unlike similar institutions such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Bilderberg Meeting is conducted strictly behind closed doors with participants bound by the Chatham House Rule, which prohibits the disclosure of the identity of those behind any idea mentioned within the meeting. Officially intended to allow for the free flow of discourse, the back-room nature of the meeting of global elites has fostered many theories about the influence the conference may exert on international policy.

This belief is perhaps not without merit. A 2023 study from Lukas Kantor of Prague’s Charles University found that at least 133 politicians were elevated to positions of power after attending a Bilderberg Meeting, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and current French President Emmanuel Macron.

According to Kantor, at least 42 participants became either prime ministers, presidents, or the top officials of international organisations such as the European Union, NATO or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While he acknowledged that most participants were never elevated to a top political position, Kantor said that it is likely that “politicians invited to the exclusive meetings gain valuable contacts, insider information and probably some backing”.

“From 2019 to 2023, all key international organizations—EU, NATO, IMF, and UN—have been chaired by Bilderbergers (Ursula von der Leyen, Jens Stoltenberg, Kristalina Georgieva and Antonio Guterres). It seems improbable that this is just a coincidence,” Kantor wrote.

Hotel Eurostars Suites Mirasierra (Madrid), Wikipedia Commons

This year’s meeting in Madrid, hosted at the Eurostars Suites Mirasierra hotel from May 30th to June 2nd by Ana Botín, the executive chair of Banco Santander — the largest bank in Spain — saw over 130 supposed luminaries from around the world attend.

Notable political participants included NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, European Council President Charles Michel, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Estonian PM Kaja Kallas, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, former Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, and ex-CIA chief David Petraeus.

The meeting also saw top members of the financial sector attend, such as the President of the European Investment Bank Nadia Calviño, former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, and Deutsche Bank AG CEO Christian Sewing. Various members of the legacy media were also in attendance, including CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, however, journalists are prohibited from reporting on the goings on inside the meeting.

Other noteworthy participants include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Google DeepMind CEO Hassabis Demis, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

The Guardian reports that security for this year’s conference was “intense… even by Bilderberg standards”, noting that protection featured “police drones hovering over the hotel”.

A bare-bones press release from the group said that this year’s Bilderberg Meeting will focus on topics such as the state and safety of Artificial Intelligence, the “changing faces of biology”, the climate, the “future of warfare”, the economic challenges in the United States and Europe, Ukraine, the Middle East, China, and Russia.

The agenda for the conference is set by an elected “Steering Committee“, which includes World Economic Forum Børge Brende, who is reported to be in line to take over the Davos forum for Klaus Schwab next year.

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