The overwhelming victory of far-right leader Gert Wilders in the Netherlands confirms the steady rise of radical parties across Europe grappling with questions of identity and based on the social and economic fears sweeping across the continent.
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Whether they come to power (often in coalitions) as in Italy, Slovakia or Hungary or make progress as in France, Spain or Germany, far-right or populist parties are on the rise.
“One election after another we see that the extreme right is achieving immense success,” said French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann on Thursday on France 2, for whom “the EU is in danger of internal and external death”.
The rise of the far right, based primarily on the issue of immigration and nationalist and identity discourses, began in the late 1970s with increasing migration flows in Europe, culminating in the migrant crisis of 2015 and the arrival in Europe of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees the continent.
This trend “has been at work for a very long time,” estimates researcher Thierry Chopin from the Jacques Delors Institute, pointing to the place that has been occupied for more than 20 years by “the hostile discourse towards foreigners, against immigration from Muslim countries and “the exploitation” of the migration crisis by these political forces.
Although he began to tone down his speech after his victory, Gert Wilders built his political career on populist, Islamophobic rhetoric. The same is true in Italy, where Giorgia Meloni campaigned primarily on an anti-immigrant theme, like the coalition backed by the far-right government in Sweden.
Countries such as France, Germany and Spain, to name just a few, are also affected by identity discourses and immigration is a recurring theme.
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uncertainty
The extreme right also thrives on social and economic insecurity.
“The feeling of insecurity and inequality in the face of globalization is leading to the rise of these movements,” summarizes Raquel García from the Spanish Elcano Institute.
Gert Wilders in the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen, who made it to the second round of the 2022 presidential election, also advocated purchasing power, recalls Gilles Ivaldi of Cevipof at Sciences Po.
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There is also a crisis of representation, an anti-elitist and anti-systemic discourse and, for the researcher, a less visible but important factor, the traces left by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. “The right-wing extremist parties have mobilized a lot about the fears, frustrations and rejection of health measures by part of the population. Quietly, they managed to capitalize on the support,” notes Mr. Ivaldi.
“The feeling of insecurity and inequality in the face of globalization is leading to the rise of these movements,” summarizes Raquel García from the Spanish Elcano Institute.
Finally, the international context, particularly the war in Ukraine, creates uncertainty that benefits radical parties.
standardization
“There is clearly a moment of the extreme right in Europe,” stresses Mr. Ivaldi, stressing that the rise or seizure of power of these parties in several EU countries is also due to the normalization strategy launched since then. years of this training. In France, Marine Le Pen broke with the anti-Semitism of her father Jean-Marie Le Pen. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni distanced herself from her party’s fascist legacy. The Sweden Democrats have forgotten the party’s neo-Nazi origins.
“All of these parties offer guarantees of respectability; they have learned or are capable of learning,” the researcher states, but is afraid of the temptation to issue them “a democratic blank check.”
However, the extreme right is suffering from disappointments, as shown by the last parliamentary elections in Poland, in which the centrist camp won against the populist nationalists PiS, who had previously ruled.
But this should not obscure the growing porosity between the traditional right and the far right, Mr Ivaldi fears. “The ideas of the extreme right are spreading, they are spreading in the major parties, we see this in France or Germany,” he notes.
For researcher Diederick van Wijk from the Clingendael Institute, “we see a movement to the right” that could materialize in the European elections in June 2024.