Europe May Be Headed for Something Unthinkable – With parliamentary elections next year, we face the possibility of a far-right European Union.
by Benjazzi
Europe May Be Headed for Something Unthinkable – With parliamentary elections next year, we face the possibility of a far-right European Union.
by Benjazzi
32 comments
Right wing politics does seem to be creeping in throughout Europe.
I mean, why is anyone surprised? The EU/national governments has had almost 9 years now to address migration and the consequences around it. Why vote for the same parties that don’t have good or successful policies? Most people want normal, relatively centrist parties working on solid solutions for daily problems, not radical parties full of weird leaders and scandals, but when the normal parties aren’t doing their job, what do you expect?
This isn’t unthinkable – it was inevitable.
EDIT: The article is about migration. That’s why it’s the focus of my comment. I know other issues exist and countries have their own situations. Please just read the article first.
This was totally avoidable and now it’s inevitable.
Maybe i wouldve still be inclined to continue voting left if the left wouldnt continue to act oblivious to the shortcomings of certain ideologies.
At some point there has to be a stand, and many including me feel like its getting quite overdue for a correction.
Freedom of religion and tolerance should not be exploited to protect extremely intolerant and dogmatic ideologies.
Sorry for ditching the left for now, i hope to be back soon.
“Far-right” – Anything remotely conservative.
Honestly big part of it is suicidal stupidity of liberal parties across europe who are either unable or unwilling to adress or even talk about real problems that bother a lot of voters.
In many cases best campaign for far right parties are liberal mainstream governments. That is not to say that asshats like Orban, Fico or Kaczyński are better – of course not and far right EU leadership could be a catastrophe. But it is a catastrophe that the left and traditional right did nothing to avert.
Reddit gonna be wild.
Maybe they should have taken the complaints of the people more seriously. I mean it’s just a thought.
He doesn’t even try and make a case as to why Europe should want the migrants or soften the newly hardened rules. He just demands the migrants be let in and the Europeans stop whining. Why should the Europeans want him, or anyone like him, in their countries?
Then people ask me why I wish I was in my twenties 30-40 years ago instead of now.
Why post a paywalled article if you’re not gonna copy and paste it into the comments ?
I voted left the first time I could vote. The 2nd time I voted right, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The left wing politicians ruined Sweden by implementing extremist policies that only a small minority really wanted.
Sweden has no extremist parties in parlament, I would even say that Swedens communist party is pretty tame, but small decisions such as “unlimited immigration” vs “limited immigration” has obviously had an enormous impact on how Sweden has developed for the last 25 years.
I think the big issue is the complete breakdown of communication. People on the left and the right completely stopped talking to each other. The left are now “woke gender-changing LGBTQ+ progressivists”, the right are “MAGA GOP Nazis bought by Putin”.
The left has really warped the definition of far right.
This is global no?
I’m sure this is happening spontaneously and moderate parties did everything within their power to stop it.
/s
Deservedly so if we do.
I feel like saying “far-right” has lost all meaning in european politics. Even our government is supposedly far-right. A few years ago, when someone said “far-right”, my mind went to nazis. Nowadays, not so much.
The reason people are turning right is because the left isn’t working. You’d have to be blind or plain stupid to keep voting left. Or maybe just live in your ivory tower and don’t see the struggle of the people below.
Anyway, anything’s that not far-left is far-right these days, so I really don’t give a damn about articles from NY Times and such.
I am a leftist (with no party affiliation) and honestly it does feel that all parties in Ireland, regardless of ideology, seem to be sticking their fingers in their ears about all the issues that fuel the right and alt right.
Ireland does not have any major far right parties, and the ones that exist are messes with no elected representation, but I do think a better organised alt right party is inevitable
It is called democracy.
Would you rather have a “””FaR rIgHt””” Europe (whatever that even means in [current year]), or the complete destruction of European culture and demographics by flooding the continent with immigrants and refugees from non European countries with an incompatible culture and values?
European ~~Union~~ Empire
Jokes aside, is it just me or is it a classic scenario that every time one of these far right parties gains enough traction and its time to actually govern, they just become a generic center right party with some edgy rhetoric thrown in the mix.
Wilders in the Netherlands just backtracked on his promise to ban islam, for example.
They just become generic centre right parties, with extra steps.
To be honest, the ‘socialist’ parties are kinda the same.
Hopefully!
As 2023 comes to an end, there is a growing sense of panic in Europe. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union has been preoccupied with integrating the country — widely seen as a geopolitical necessity — and with the internal reform required to make that possible. But over the course of this year, as the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled, tensions among member states have increased.
As members have disagreed on issues such as climate policy and the war in Gaza, the unity around supporting Ukraine has shown signs of cracking, too. With no end to the war in sight, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary has stepped up efforts to limit the bloc’s backing of Ukraine; the election of Robert Fico in Slovakia has given him another ally in the cause. In an even bigger shock last month, Geert Wilders’s far-right party became the biggest force in the Dutch parliament. Whether or not Mr. Wilders can form a government, his strong showing may lead to further disruption in Europe, on Ukraine and much else.
European elites are right to worry. But the focus on divisions within the bloc obscures a much more disturbing development taking place beneath the surface: a coming together of the center right and the far right, especially on questions around identity, immigration and Islam. With European parliamentary elections next year, this convergence is bringing into clearer view the possibility of something like a far-right European Union. Until recently, such a thing would have seemed unthinkable. Now it’s distinctly plausible.
For the past decade, European politics have widely been understood in terms of a binary opposition between liberalism and illiberalism. During the refugee crisis in 2015, for example, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Mr. Orban were seen as political opposites — she the figurehead of liberalism, he of illiberalism. Yet their parties, the center-right Christian Democrats and far-right Fidesz, were in the same grouping in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party. In other words, they were political allies. (Fidesz was suspended from the grouping in 2019 and finally quit in 2021.)
Since then, the convergence between the center right and the far right in Europe has gone further. The lesson that center-right parties drew from the rise of right-wing populism was that they needed to adopt some of its rhetoric and policies. Conversely, some far-right parties have become more moderate, albeit in a selective way. At a national level, parties from the two camps have governed together, both formally, as in Austria and Finland, and informally, as in Sweden.
Yet the most striking illustration of this convergence is the harmonious relationship between the European center right and Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy, who became prime minister of Italy last year. As soon as she indicated that she would not disrupt the bloc’s economic policy and would be supportive of Ukraine, the European People’s Party was willing to work with her — and its leader, Manfred Weber, even sought to form an alliance with her. The center right, it turns out, doesn’t have a problem with the far right. It just has a problem with those who defy E.U. institutions and positions.
The two, in fact, can agree on a lot — something that plays out most clearly in immigration policy. In contrast to its progressive image, the European Union has, like Donald Trump, sought to build a wall — in this case, in the Mediterranean — to stop migrants from arriving on its shores. Since 2014, more than 28,000 people have died there as they desperately tried to reach Europe. Human Rights Watch said earlier this year that the bloc’s policy could be summed up in three words: “Let them die.”
The European Union’s distinctive approach to migration depends on what might be called the offshoring of violence. Even as it has welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees, the bloc has paid authoritarian regimes in North African countries to stop migrants from sub-Saharan Africa from reaching Europe, often brutally. Through this grotesque form of outsourcing, the union can continue to insist that it stands for human rights, which is central to its self-image. In this project, the center right and far right are in lock step. In July, Ms. Meloni joined the head of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, and the Dutch prime minister to sign one such deal with Tunisia.
The blurring of boundaries between the center right and the far right is not always as easy to spot as it is in the United States. Partly that’s because the process, taking place in the complex world of the bloc, is subtle. But it is also because of a simplified view of the far right as nationalists, which makes it seem incompatible with a post-national project like the European Union. Yet today’s far right speaks not only on behalf of the nation but also on behalf of Europe. It has a civilizational vision of a white, Christian Europe that is menaced by outsiders, especially Muslims.
Such thinking is behind the hardening of migration policy. But it is also influencing Europe in a deeper way: The union has increasingly come to see itself as defending an imperiled European civilization, particularly in its foreign policy. During the past decade, as the bloc has seen itself as surrounded by threats, not least from Russia, there have been endless debates about “strategic autonomy,” “European sovereignty” and a “geopolitical Europe.” But figures like President Emmanuel Macron of France have also begun to frame international politics as a clash of civilizations in which a strong, united Europe must defend itself.
In this respect, Mr. Macron is not so far from far-right figures like Mr. Wilders who talk in terms of a threatened European civilization. His electoral success in the Netherlands could be a prelude, many fear, to a major rightward shift in the European parliamentary elections next June. That would give the far right substantial power to shape the next commission even more than the current one — both directly, with the possibility of far-right figures in top positions, and indirectly, with their concerns channeled by the center right.
Supporters of the bloc tend to see European unity as an end in itself — or to assume that a more powerful European Union, long idealized as a civilizing force in international politics, would automatically benefit the whole world. But as the union unites around defending a threatened European civilization and rejecting nonwhite immigration, we need to think again about whether it truly is a force for good.
I want only hard working immigrants, who will culturally assimilate.
If someone is breaking the law or abusing handouts after a few years consider deportation.
Its seems like I’m “far right”.
Dont worry, every single politician is incompetent and nothing will be done
And why would that be? Would it be a result of the citizens of these countries feel like they’re not being listened to, so they’ll flock to parties who say they will sort things out even if it’s not true?
What amazes me is how predictable this was
Liberal governments have abandoned regular people for the wealthy. Most policies from the past 50 years, and all the policies form the past 20 years have done nothing but pump stocks, pump real-estate, and pump the assets of the ruling class.
Every banking regulation has been undone. All parties did that.
Competition has been crushed and oligopolies run the world. All parties did that.
Regular people used to be able to get into politics, but now it takes a mountain of cash to get elected, and the people with mountains of cash are not regular people.
Canadian here, we have completely fucked every generation coming up, and looks like it’s the same around the world.
Now a HUGE BACKLASH, whaaaaaaaaaaa?????
Everything seems to be far right for anyone left of the center.
Well how is it surprising if the left never addresses the real problems that people have and instead constantly focus on stuff that doesn’t affect the majority?