Why Are ‘Far Right’ Parties on the Rise in Europe?
With National Rally having stormed to victory in the first round of France’s legislative election, commentators are once again asking: why do ‘far Right’ parties keep winning votes in Europe? (I put ‘far Right’ in quotation marks, as I realise the designation is contested.)
Left-wing academics view the ‘far Right’ the same way early European explorers viewed the native people they encountered – as primitive, dangerous and in need of ‘civilising’. They have come up with all manner of convoluted and implausible answers to the question above. It must be austerity. Or income inequality. Or ‘disinformation’.
Notice how ideologically convenient these answers are: they’re essentially the Left’s favourite hobby horses. Leftists already want action on austerity, income inequality and disinformation, so they just kind of assume those things are behind the rise of the ‘far Right’. Why is the ‘far Right’ on the rise, you ask? Turns out it’s because we haven’t been doing everything the Left wanted to do anyway.
The preceding answers don’t make much sense either. Why would people concerned about austerity and income inequality vote for the ‘far Right’ when they could just vote for the Left, which is much more focused on those issues? And why would people be more susceptible to ‘disinformation’ than to the supposedly correct information that’s constantly broadcast through all mainstream media?
The real reason the ‘far Right’ is on the rise is very simple: immigration – particularly Muslim immigration. Of course, Left-wing commentators refuse to believe this because it would mean their own preferred policies are the root cause of something they claim is an existential threat to democracy.
The fact that immigration – and not austerity, income inequality or ‘disinformation’ – is behind the rise of the ‘far Right’ can be seen very clearly in the case of Denmark.
Like most of Western Europe, the small Scandinavian country had seen large-scale immigration from the Middle East and North Africa, which prompted the formation of several ‘far Right’ parties. At the 2015 election, one such party (the Danish People’s Party) came second with 21% of the vote. At the next election in 2019, the Social Democrats (the country’s main Left-wing party) ran on a platform of immigration restrictionism and support for the welfare state. It won the most votes and was able to form a government with the other Left-wing parties. At the most recent election in 2022, the two ‘far Right’ parties got only 6% of the vote.
This example shows that the ‘far Right’ ceases to be an important political force when centrist parties adopt immigration restrictionism.
All those parties have to do is not pursue a policy that radically changes the country’s demographic composition and makes housing increasingly unaffordable. But they can’t help themselves: for some inexplicable reason, they just have to keep letting people in.
If the Left really wanted to neutralise the ‘far Right’, they would pursue the same strategy as the Danish Social Democrats. Since they choose not to, it’s hard to take their hand-wringing over ‘threats to democracy’ seriously.
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The disconnect between what politicians want people to believe and how the public experience the world has never been so at odds with one another.
The emperor has truly been exposed as wearing no clothes.
Pinch your nose, choose the least worst candidate and vote Reform.
Or… recognise that pinching your nose is only temporarily hiding the smell – kicking the can of sh”t down the road – and don’t vote under the current undemocratic system, knowing that whoever you vote for, whatever they tell you, is not what you’ll get. Vote with your feet, well away from their ballot boxes, and quietly (to start with) expose the illusion of democracy. Vote for real change by not voting at all.
Complete and utter garbage. Not voting just means, in effect, voting for the shit one that gets in. You didn’t vote against the one you most dislike. Pretty obvious.
Agree – imagine the whole country becomes disillusioned and stops voting except for one Uniparty voter. The Uniparty remains in power.
Unless, of course, the non-voters start throwing bombs and burning down buildings, which is usually a recipe for the nastiest bullies to seize power.
I think once enough people stop voting, or spoil their ballot papers, other candidates and forces may emerge. This will not happen though, because a lot of people are asleep and I think will only wake up when the building is already ablaze.
At least you get it, even if you don’t agree with it. For what it’s worth – and I know I’m banging my head adjust a brick wall here (not with you necessarily) – I think you’re wrong. I think if enough people stop voting the emperor will appear naked to everyone and a transient period of unrest will almost certainly enact change. It’s a theory, but what I know without doubt is that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is lunacy.
Oh I think if hardly anyone voted then things probably would change – but people will carry on voting for parties that are the least bad or just for a different one than last time, because they are half asleep and don’t really envisage any alternative.
Maybe that is what is needed. The state has got too big and is on a runaway train. Look at the NHS, bloated and no amount of money can fix it. And they murder people.
What is “utter garbage” is believing that your votes counts one iota towards actual change. The problem is the brainwashed masses still being naïve enough to think the electoral system is there to support the people. It isn’t, it’s an illusion of democracy to keep the people placated and to make them feel powerful for a few weeks every four years. All you’re doing is legitimising an illegitimate system. Pretty obvious.
I agree with you 100% and I wasn’t going to vote at all until Nigel Farage entered the fray. His dedication over 25 years to getting Brexit and, against the odds, achieving it, makes me think he could turn things around in our country if he gets enough votes. Doesn’t matter about seats as long as he is elected (GO Clacton!)+ there is a groundswell of public support across the country. He could change things, Free Lemming 💪🏻
I’m not persuaded by the argument that if enough of us choose not to vote then an alternative would be created to fill the void.
Look at voter turnout at local elections – only 40% of Londoners showed up to choose a mayor, yet nobody is calling for the abolition of the London Assembly.
Choosing a political party when we have limited choice is more like choosing a taxi company to drive us to the airport.
They will all have £2.7 trillion of debt to repay to the pension funds so whoever is elected will have their hands tied.
I’d vote with your wallet and choose the party that is least committed to war with Russia.
I think it’s more akin to choosing your prison warden. I guess one of us will be proven right in the not so distant future. I really hope it’s you.
Not voting has the same effect on politicians as not existing. When they care about anything, they care about what voters think, not what non-voters think.
Which party leader in the past 28 years worked extremely hard to obtain a Referendum and persuade the majority to bring about a fundamental political change in 2016?
The answer is obvious: Nigel Farage. He has just given the Reform party a tremendous boost by taking over the leadership, standing for election and expressing his wish to be the real Opposition to Labour rather than the pseudo-Conservatives.
Farage has a good chance of being the bowling ball that knocks the liblabcon skittles askew at the least or topples the lot in the long term at best.
Why wouldn’t you try to undermine the ghastly Uniparty when you have the chance to do it by voting Reform? What is there to lose? In our present parlous state – NOTHING!
Cause we are all Nazis innit…I did note another Tory plant Reform candidate resigning saying the party are all Wacist. A little note to the Tory party you are destroying the conservative brand even further with these dirty tricks. Alot of ppl will be unable ever to support the party of Mrs Thatcher again.
What genius defects to a sinking ship?
Establishment goons. The Tory party is loaded with them.
So because of a few racists and hurty words, they would rather support a party that is destroying what is left of this country. What will she tell her grandkids, I didn’t take a stand to save this Nation because of a few naughty words and Alf Garnets. Pathetic.
Perhaps one day the words ‘racist/racism’ will be ‘no-no’ words like the one black people bandy about the whole time to describe themselves, but no one else is allowed to on pain of social ostracism (double standards rule). The term is trite, it’s boring, it’s meaningless, it’s a cheap slur, an underhand trick to discredit someone and employed by hypocrites who complain about it but practise it themselves, against whites mostly. The majority of people prefer their own national/ethnic group to any other because they share the same language, culture, history, customs, laws & traditions and understand each others’ reference points, manners etc. This applies globally and is perfectly acceptable – or it should be. Unfortunately, there are people in society who like to stir up blame, resentment, guilt, censure in order to cause division for their own ends, usually for political purposes. These are the people who predictably overuse and abuse the terms ‘racist/racism’ to the point of yawning tedium and should be ignored. One day, maybe, it will be considered the height of bad manners to utter or write those terms in company, in public, in the media or in personal abuse. Ditto, ‘izlamophobia’, ‘hinduphobia’, ‘transphobia’, or whatever… Read more »
And with two days to go they wheel out an even more dishevelled than usual Boris. They must think at the 11th hour that some dishevelment might still do the trick——-The Tories are like the last survivors of the Titanic clinging to the very last lifeboat. But on Thursday they all DROWN. Maybe in 100 years time we will send little submarine down to look for them.
Left wing parties are behaving like communists. The left hate democracy, and get nasty and violent when they fail to get their own way. Just look at France. If you have a different opinion to the left, they riot.
What the hell do you think they are? Tories? They are all the same and always have been. Tiny nuances separate them.
“Left-wing academics view the ‘far Right’ the same way early European explorers viewed the native people they encountered – as primitive, dangerous and in need of ‘civilising’.”
Left wing academics and others have worked out that using the term “far right” to describe anyone with non-left-wing policies works as it frightens some confused/sheeple types into thinking they might be voting for Literally Hitler.
And for far too many people it’s perpetually 1939. As if nothing happened before or since.
Yet Hitler was the archetypical Socialist, the only genuine Socialist I can think of.
Why do the ‘far-Right’ parties cease to be ‘far-Right’? Cease just as soon as they have achieved any sort of electoral presence.
Why are those who vote for ‘far-Right’ parties so easily satisfied (gulled?) with ‘restrictionism’? ‘Controlled’ or ‘managed’ immigration. Which means not reduced in numbers, just having a bureaucratic oversight lacking in the Channel boat arrivals.
The offers of ‘controlled’ immigration given to the ‘far-Right’ by the centrist politicians is like those early European traders offering beads and trinkets to the natives in return for their gold.
Thatcher’s Tory party back in the 80s would be considered Far Right now!
Not far right enough or she would have reduced immigration from izlamic countries to zero and maybe we wouldn’t be in the dire straits we find ourselves now.
You have really hit the nail on the head!
“Beads & trinkets” is a splendid analogy— painfully true, as truth so often is.
Well that’s as may be, and it makes me very happy, but let’s not forget there’s still plenty of EU Leftard globalists still in positions of power; ”In recent reports, Polish media outlets have unabashedly propagated a wholly false narrative about who has been selected to run the EU for another term. The typical news lede goes something like this: “Leaders of the 27 EU countries decided on the distribution of the union’s top positions late Thursday night. Ursula von der Leyen remains the president of the European Commission, with Portugal’s António Costa becoming the president of the European Council, and the Estonian Kaja Kallas appointed as the head of EU diplomacy.” This paints a seemingly standard picture of EU politics. However, what is clear is that the so-called meritocratic oligarchy, which considers itself the only viable “elite,” has maintained power in the EU, conveniently redistributing positions among themselves. The EU system is so entrenched that it ensures control remains within its most powerful cliques. What is more, European technocrats have blatantly ignored the rightward shift in the latest elections on June 9, pretending not to even notice the changing winds. Conservative arguments, realistic and grounded in common sense, are… Read more »
Ursula and her TXT messages to Albert Bourla. We are still waiting to hear about all those redacted messages.
Blindingly obvious I would have thought. I seriously object to being called Right Wing let alone Far or Hard Right. The nazi’s were not Right Wing, it didn’t exist, they were a different bland of nutcase Socialism. The British Socialist nutcases deemed the Nazi’s Right Wing to try to make out they were different.
Hitler’s speech in 1945, to commemorate 25 years of his party, is remarkable for one particular reason: John McDonell, in an interview in the “Ohhh, Jeremy Corbyn” year stated the exaxt same aims as Hitler. A World Socialist Government.
Blindingly obvious I would have thought. I seriously object to being called Right Wing let alone Far or Hard Right. The nazi’s were not Right Wing, it didn’t exist, they were a different brand of nutcase Socialism. The NSDAP came into power because monarchists from the DNVP persuaded Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor of DNVP/ NSDAP coalition government. And these (plus a few others) were the right winger of the late Weimar republic while the left wingers stretched from SPD (centre-left) to the KPD (far left, in favour of a USSR-style revolutionary turnover leading to the dictatorship of the proletariat or rather, the communist intelligentsia who claimed to represent it). To the hard left wingers, the republic was a half-baked state because the members of the old ruling castes, Beamte¹, military aristocrats and factory owners still controlled much of everything. They wanted to get rid of these completely and create an entirely different state based on the idea of the Russian bolshevists. To the hard right wingers, the republic was essentialy the outcome of a parliamentary coup d’etat plus an armed, communist insurrection which had forced Germany to end the first world war with a capitulaiton. They wanted to… Read more »
Has anyone else noticed that the elephant in the woodpile seems to be the Muslim voter. They haven’t appeared in any of the Starmer or Sunak walkabouts that I have seen, although there are many black faces.
Although having just said that an feature has just cropped up on GBNews of a Rabbi Conservative candidate who was abused at a mosque, having been invited as a guest.
I expect you already know this site, but in case not:
https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/front-page/politics-on-the-brink-of-retreat/
And in Britain, to show their discontent with the lax immigration record of the Conservative Party, the British public are going to vote in Labour with their even more lax attitude to immigration.
And to further demoralise the public, they will be told that this was the result of a democratic process in which the public have signalled that they are pro-immigration – otherwise they wouldn’t have voted for Labiur, right – and so will get more immigration.
That, my friends, is how democracy in Britain works.
Crazy see-sawing between two bad choices with no one listening to what the people have been indicating for bloody decades: NO MORE IMMIGRATION!
Why Are ‘Far Right’ Parties on the Rise in Europe?
Could it be that the ‘Far Right’ Parties more closely serve the interests of the People, whereas the Left wingers serve their own interests and those of their globalist, technocrat cronies?
Which makes the People ‘Far Right’… or maybe just normal Humans interested in themselves not abstractions, and neo-Pagan worship of all things non-Human.
If you get 33% of the vote how can you be described as “far” anything. Far third maybe.
Jeff Taylor: Just days away from War? Not watch the full 27 minutes but sounds interesting and concerning:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85UHFZ3T0Uc
If you and I stand on the centre spot of a football field and you move to the left touchline, I’m on your ‘far right’.
I didn’t move.
When al Beeb describes someone as such, they convict themselves. My views haven’t moved since the 1980s. Theirs have.
There is a tacit mostly unconscious view that in the times of the collapse of the financial system, that a party that looks out of the normal might have a better chance of saving it or at least bringing about a soft landing. This is a forlorn hope and a waste of time, far left or far right (obviously the terms themselves are black magic mind control). There is no soft landing for those aligned with the Anglo-Americans. It is systemically impossible to prevent the outcome.If you have money then go the southern hemisphere.If not then you won’t have long to wait for the wild rumpus to begin.
No one is going to have the ability to save you. The system is kaput. You can get together with people in the local area and try to build networks of survival but in terms of international operations the West has burned all its bridges and you can’t just simply reconstruct them. Get used to a life under very much diminished circumstances and understand that this will be the situation for the rest of your life. If you can point out a pathway away from this trajectory then I am all ears.
The Left are globalist the Right nationalists and ne’er the twain shall meet – simples.
Why is anything that eco communist, mass immigration, gender ideology, and diversity scum bags want classed as “far” anything in derogatory terms?. ——-It should be classed as “far common sense” or “far more representative of real people” or just “far more shut the f..k up with your eco communist pretend to save the planet scam and you multicultural cesspit politics”