Fear and loathing on the fringes Europe once again faces rising threat from the far right

Making the distinction between mainstream conservatism and far-right extremism was once obvious, but these days the lines have become increasingly blurred. Here, The Herald on Sunday examines the potential threat this poses in Europe

LAST month, in the Hungarian capital Budapest, three political leaders joined forces to form a new right-wing pan-European alliance.

The new alliance would “make Europe great again, returning to its original values”, insisted one of the leaders, Matteo Salvini of Italy’s populist radical-right Northern League Party (Lega).

Salvini is fond of new slogans given that it was only back in 2018 that Lega came to power, under the own new slogan, “Italians first!”

April’s meeting in Budapest brought together, both Salvini – himself a former Italian deputy prime minister – along with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki.

All are right-wing kindred spirits who decided the time had come to join forces after major disputes between their three countries and the European Union (EU) over cultural and political issues, such as LGBT rights and migration.

For Salvini, Orban and Morawiecki, they saw now as the moment to set in motion what they described as a “European renaissance based on Christian values”.

Their “Make Europe Great Again”, mimicking Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again”, marked yet another attempt to replicate his brand of conservatism in Europe.

It was a reminder that whether they are rising or merely holding steady in support, right-leaning populists are not going away any time soon.

In fact, if recent electoral wins, political gains and shifts across mainstream parties are anything to go by then it could be argued that far-right mainstream parties show a relentless rise in the polls in some big European countries.

This, too, before even beginning to consider the malign growth of other far-right extremist and neo-Nazi groups in Europe that often inhabit the same political landscape in tandem.

It’s all a far cry from two decades ago on February 4, 2000, when Europe reeled in shock after the far-right Freedom Party of Austria, founded in 1956 by National Socialist activists and led by Jorg Haider whose rallying call against the “Uberfremdung” (“over-foreignisation”) of his country brought his party into a government coalition.

This is a reminder again that whether they are rising or merely holding steady in support, right-leaning populists are not going away any time soon

To many people, of course, Haider represented a spectre from the dark past of European history, notorious as he was for praising the Waffen SS and some of Hitler’s policies.

It was a moment of sober reflection for both the EU and many European citizens at the time, but tricky to handle given that Haider’s Freedom Party in the October 1999 election campaign took 27 per cent of the vote, in what was then the best result for any far-right party in a European democracy since the Second World War.

“This is the first time an anti-European, xenophobic party with a very dubious relationship towards the Nazi past has come into the government of a member state,” Germany’s foreign minister Joschka Fischer proclaimed at the time.

Serious crisis

IN response to what it saw as a neo-fascist sentiment stirring in Austria, the EU felt compelled to prove its opposition and resolve but was caught in something of a bind in what became one of the most serious crises in the 40 years that Europe had taken steps towards political and economic unity.

So much for the political climate of 20 or so years ago, but what of Europe and the far-right now? Even the most cursory glance across the continent reveals the extent to which right-wing parties and leaders are making their presence felt. Last month’s get-together in Budapest was only one example.

Only last week in Spain, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the conservative contender in the election for the Madrid regional government, triumphed at the polls under her own vacuous People’s Party (PP) slogan “Communism or liberty”.

Ayuso, who defied lockdown requests from Spain’s central government in favour of keeping the economy open, more than doubled her party’s showing in the 2019 ballot, winning 65 of the regional parliament’s 136 seats.

However, the 42-year-old conservative fell short of the 69 seats required for an absolute majority. This means that to form a viable coalition, Ayuso will most likely have to rely on support from the extremist far-right Vox party, who gained 13 seats.

At national level, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party leads a minority government with the left Unidas Podemos. The parties’ poor showing in the Madrid vote prompted Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias to resign from politics.

Both Ayuso and Iglesias received death threats in the run-up to the vote, with each warning of the dangers of “communism” and “fascism” respectively, in what was eerily reminiscent of those dark days when Spain fought its civil war along just such a political faultline.

Ayuso’s victory could have lasting ramifications for the way Spain is run in the years ahead. It could also have reverberations across Europe, providing a foretaste of the possible backlash from