{"id":35959,"date":"2025-04-20T15:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35959\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T15:56:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T15:56:16","slug":"what-is-the-reactionary-international-movement-europes-new-political-force-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35959\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the reactionary international movement, Europe\u2019s new political force? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the history of the 21st century is finally written, 2025 may stand out as the year the West split between liberal democrats and far-right nationalist populists who have come to power in the US<\/a> and continue to gain momentum in Europe. <\/p>\n

The rise of the \u201creactionary international\u201d constitutes a realignment as fundamental to the future of the world as the cold war. This time, the fault lines do not follow national boundaries, but divide societies from within.<\/p>\n

French president Emmanuel Macron<\/a> brought the term reactionary international into vogue in a speech in January, implicitly comparing the rise of the extreme right across much of the world to the influence of the Socialist International, an alliance of progressive parties that profoundly marked the last century.<\/p>\n

The reactionary international opposes immigration<\/a> and multiculturalism, globalisation, LGBTQ rights and renewable energy. Donald Trump<\/a> is their hero. Like him, most prefer Vladimir Putin<\/a> to Volodymyr Zelenskiy<\/a> and support Israel\u2019s war on Palestinians<\/a>. They have no regard for the rule of law or civil liberties. Critics and opponents are labelled terrorists. The reactionary international propagates lies through social media, tends towards misogyny and, in the case of the American far right, has a strange affinity for cryptocurrencies<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Though far-right parties have been on the rise for decades, Trump\u2019s election has empowered them as nothing before. \u201cThere\u2019s a great emboldening,\u201d Rosa Balfour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the New York Times. \u201cWhat Trump says reverberates strongly [in Europe]. But also, what the US does not do. It does not punish or condemn any attempt to undermine rule of law or democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban<\/a> has been called Trump\u2019s surrogate in Europe. Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico<\/a> is, like Orban, allied with Trump and Putin. Far-right populists are front-runners in upcoming Romanian and Czech elections. Like-minded parties have nearly come to power in Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands. They ruled Poland for eight years and could return.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on Hungary: Orb\u00e1n panders to the far rightOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must stop believing that the triumph of extreme-right populists is a parenthesis in history,\u201d says the leftist French MEP Rapha\u00ebl Glucksmann. \u201cIt\u2019s a groundswell, in Europe as well as in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hungary recently banned the Budapest Pride parade. This was possible, Orban\u2019s chief of staff said, because the \u201cAmerican boot\u201d had been taken off the chest of the Hungarian government, enabling it to \u201cbreathe\u201d. Orban last month announced a \u201cspring cleaning\u201d against political opponents, journalists, judges and NGOs, whom he described as \u201cstink bugs\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0By flirting with the far right, Europe\u2019s centre-right parties play a dangerous gameOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>, who has ruled Turkey for 22 years, recently precipitated huge demonstrations by imprisoning his chief political rival. Erdogan describes himself as \u201cagainst LGBT\u201d and banned Istanbul\u2019s Pride march in 2015. Draft legislation in Turkey would impose jail sentences of three years for not behaving according to one\u2019s biological sex in public and would make it a crime to officiate at same-sex marriages. Trump describes Erdogan as \u201ca good leader\u201d. <\/p>\n

Donald Trump jnr has praised Serbia<\/a>\u2019s autocratic, pro-Russian ruler Aleksandar Vucic \u201cfor embracing the Maga movement\u201d and repeated Vucic\u2019s claim that widespread demonstrations against government corruption were fomented by the left. <\/p>\n

The leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage<\/a>, has promised a \u201cBritish equivalent of Doge\u201d, the department of government efficiency headed by Elon Musk<\/a>, and criticises government recruitment as \u201cdesigned to put ethnic minorities to the top of the list against white people with more history in this country\u201d. This week, Daniel Kebede, the leader of the UK\u2019s National Education Union, described Farage as \u201ca pound-shop Donald Trump\u201d.<\/p>\n

Far-right leaders from Europe and South America flocked to Washington for Trump\u2019s January 20th inauguration. A fortnight later, the Patriots for Europe, who constitute the second largest group in the European Parliament<\/a>, gathered in Madrid for a \u201cMake Europe Great Again\u201d fest. \u201cThe Trump tornado has changed the world in two weeks,\u201d Orban gloated. \u201cYesterday, we were the heretics; today we\u2019re mainstream. People thought we represented the past; today, everyone sees that we are the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

European far-right politicians made another pilgrimage to Washington on February 19th for a three-day Conservative Political Action Conference. \u201cPutting Donald Trump in the White House was the first step in putting Europe back on track,\u201d Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni<\/a> gushed. The Argentinian president Javier Milei<\/a> gave Musk a symbolic chainsaw, so that Musk could mutilate government services as he has. <\/p>\n

The reactionary international demonstrated solidarity by condemning the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen\u2019s conviction on March 31st<\/a> for diverting more than \u20ac4 million in EU funds. \u201cJe suis Marine,\u201d Orb\u00e1n posted on X. Trump dismissed the conviction as a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d based on \u201ca bookkeeping error\u201d and concluded his post: \u201cFREE MARINE LE PEN!\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike his predecessors, Trump holds impromptu press conferences in the Oval Office, which allows him to exclude media he doesn\u2019t like. Two such recent charades drove home Trump\u2019s renunciation of the US\u2019s role as leader of the free world. The February 28th ambush of Zelenskiy showed how closely Trump has allied himself with Putin. On Monday, Trump\u2019s warm reception<\/a> of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, the self-described \u201cworld\u2019s coolest dictator\u201d, signalled the end of habeas corpus \u2013 the notion that the government cannot seize one\u2019s body without legal justification \u2013 in the United States.<\/p>\n

Trump has paid Bukele $6 million (\u20ac5.3 million) to imprison 260 Latin American men whom the Trump administration accused of belonging to Venezuelan gangs. The two presidents engaged in a grotesque charade in which both declined to liberate Kilmar Abrego Garcia<\/a>, a law-abiding permanent US resident, whom the White House admitted was deported by mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to do homegrown criminals next … The homegrowns,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou gotta build about five more places.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we\u2019ve got space,\u201d Bukele replied.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The global fight for science in the face of Trump\u2019s attacksOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The US vice-president, secretary of state and attorney general were all present, yet there was not the slightest recognition that mass deportations \u2013 apparently to include US citizens in the future \u2013 without charge, trial or due process, are illegal and immoral. On the contrary. The room erupted in laughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the history of the 21st century is finally written, 2025 may stand out as the year the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2895,32,295,34,2000,299,5187,20730,2440,40,20418,384,8536,6566,6567,49,1781,333,20729],"class_list":{"0":"post-35959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-cryptocurrencies","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-elon-musk","11":"tag-emmanuel-macron","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-parliament","16":"tag-giorgia-meloni","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","19":"tag-nigel-farage","20":"tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","21":"tag-robert-fico","22":"tag-serbia","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-viktor-orban","25":"tag-vladimir-putin","26":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114371112595824418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}