Far-right resurgence in Europe
Once a liberal left-wing hotspot, the last decade has seen Europe’s anomalous turn towards the far right. As France’s Marine Le Pen’s right wing National Rally threatened Macron’s left wing Renaissance party, all eyes are on Europe as elections continue to heat up. In Italy, Georgio Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party have led the government for two years and continue to be frontrunners. In Hungary, Viktor Orban’s Fidesk have led a far-right regime in Hungary for over a decade. Once a pipe dream, a far-right takeover in Europe has grown from murmurs to protests. The far-right has made substantial gains in the European Parliament elections, destabilizing Europe’s trajectory and questioning the credibility of left-winged parties in Europe. With such a change, one must question its beginnings, its process and its outcomes. In this article, we will delve into the resurgence of far-right politics, what it means for Europe and whether the far right can truly become a mainstay in European politics.
Before we proceed, I will take some time to dissect the political spectrum. Critically, the political spectrum is split into the left, right and centre. Terms like liberal and socialist are commonly used to describe parties that politically align to the left. Generally, parties on the left advocate for human rights, more redistributive policies and greater internationalism. Parties on the right are sometimes called conservatives and generally advocate for tradition, religion and nationalism. Intuitively, a party that aligns to the centre would be the average of both the left and the right. Note that in the article below, the term far-right is used because the term is used to describe radical conservatives. However, be wary that the term far-right comes with a negative connotation and is used to cast negativity on right wing parties. Whether a political party is truly far-right is nuanced and the term cannot be simply thrown around.
Why the resurgence?
For many decades, Europeans have embraced liberal ideals and welcomed globalization and its ideals. During this time the centrist, socialist and liberal parties served as the political mainstays in Europe. However, in the last decade far-right political parties have gained traction and their immense rise cannot be ignored.
Firstly, the core issue that Europe faces is migration. Sentiments towards migration have steadily taken a hit as Europeans are increasingly frustrated by the clash of cultures. Fleeing from war torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, over a million refugees triggered the migration crisis in 2015 which had a big role to play in UK’s Brexit decision. With that being said, Europe is not against what it calls regular migration – legal and approved migration – its battle is against irregular migration. This form of migration occurs when illegal migrants risk their lives to begin anew in a European country. As migrant populations grow, the established way of life in European cities are being threatened. European countries are predominantly Christian, and the wave of migrants seeks to challenge this longstanding culture. In short, Europeans are now alarmed by the cultural changes that globalization has brought about and are reluctant to lose their rich heritage and culture. With the growing migrant population, Europeans are increasingly motivated to protect their identity and way of life against foreign influences. The far-right parties in Europe are the ones calling out the incumbents on this crisis, hoping for the electorate to punish the establishment. Their tactics seem to be working as more and more people are rallying against migrants and liberal parties.
Secondly, Europe leaning left came alongside the rise of globalization where countries accepted that collaboration was the best way to maintain peace and build prosperous nations. Simply, a rich and interconnected Europe would be less likely to declare wars on one another. With globalization came promises of the uplifting of the working class and the trickle-down effect. Despite its lofty goals, the Europe of today has far less faith in the promises that globalization has to offer. For many, neoliberal economics has not improved standard of living by much, coupled with the rising costs of today and widening inequality, the left is no longer able to sway voters with their economic performance legitimacy. The patience of the electorate is running thin as they are seemingly ready to give anti-establishment parties a shot at forming government. Together with migration issues, economic stability and upward mobility have become bread and butter issues in Europe, as opposed to issues such as inclusivity, human rights and equal treatment.
Lastly, the rise of the far-right may not actually be a result of an agreement on far-right policies rather it could be the result of anti-establishment sentiments. As the European voters become increasingly disillusioned with the incumbent left-wing parties, they are more likely to vote for their right-wing counterparts. Failures within national governments and EU governments have further exacerbated this frustration towards the establishment. Perhaps, voting for the right is no longer a protest vote as the right has been able to effectively communicate the troubles and unhappiness of the layman. People now believe that far-right parties truly have their interests in heart and can help solve the issues in Europe.
In sum, the amalgamation of failures from the current left-wing led politics have laid the fertile grounds for a threatening right-wing resurgence. The next segment will investigate the possible impacts of a right-wing take over in Europe.
How would a far-right takeover change things?
Quite clearly, a far-right takeover would alter the current trajectory taken towards issues on migration, climate change and defense. In the latest EU migration pact, the centrist parliament has admitted to adopting some of the right-wing stances leading to stronger deportation processes. Additionally, the new pact places more focus on allowing intermediate host countries such as Turkey and Libya to help with immigration management.
Again, this openness towards right-wing policy stance is evidence of the growing support for right-wing parties such that the incumbents have had to compromise to maintain popularity.
A far-right EU government will also foreseeably stray from the current climate pacts and be less willing to meet the set climate targets. Traditionally, far-right governments have led rejections to climate change policies. The German far-right Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) rejected the Green deal alongside Netherlands and Poland. Rejecting and downplaying climate policies is typical of far-right parties and we will definitely see a regress on upcoming climate policy enforcement.
Far-right parties tend to be ultranationalist, and a takeover may result in the weakening of the EU as a political institution, ceding authority back to the nation state. The EU pools the sovereignty of its member states together and creates a ‘one Europe’ identity, a far-right takeover would threaten this very fundamental aspect. A right-wing government will look to strengthen their own states economically and politically. With stronger individual European states, it helps to contribute to a stronger Europe which is what the EU wants after all. For now Europe may be a special case of ‘divided we stand, united we fall’.
So, is the far-right takeover really happening? In fact, is the far-right even an actual label or is it created by the incumbents to cast negativity on their political opponents.
Where the far-right stands now
Currently only 7 out of 27 member states are led by far-right parties. Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden, Italy, Croatia and most recently the Netherlands are led by far-right parties. In France, the first round of voting gave incumbent President Macron a huge scare as he scurried to create a left-wing alliance to prevent Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party a victory. Finally, in the UK, the left-wing labor party won a resounding mandate, but the reform party led by Nigel Farage made substantial inroads as he was elected back into parliament. Across Europe, the far-right surge is undeniable and will continue to bolster further cementing itself as a credible political opposition.
Analyzing the EU parliament elections is also important in understanding the far-right situation in Europe. The centrist parties may have retained their majority in the recent June parliament elections but, the gains made by the far-right cannot be underestimated.
Clearly, the far-right resurgence cannot be downplayed. The fact that major political players in Europe have already begun adopting certain far-right stances, only further reinforces its rapid rise to popularity.
In my opinion…
Europe must sort out its internal issues that plague most if not all European countries. At its core, migration and cost of living are bread and butter issues that have yet to be solved. While the far-right has historically presented racist policies (combatting migration), these are often populist sentiments that are forgone when they become serious contenders. Like Geert Wilder’s PVV, the firebrand politician was strongly anti-Islam while he embraced his rise to popularity. Having won the Dutch elections, such tones have taken a backseat as he tries to form a majority in parliament. While I am not justifying racism, note that the goal of parties is to gain power. In doing so, they appease to a wider range of voters which eventually molds them to adopt a centrist stance. Perhaps the left-wing and right-wing, in reality, are not so far apart in policymaking but differ mainly on their communication of policy. Regardless of the political spectrum and alignment, European states must strengthen internally before they can think about having a Great Europe again.