It seems increasingly evident that reactionary parties gain weight with each election that is held. In Europe, but also, as we have seen in Argentina, throughout the world. Since Brexit, radical right-wing parties have managed to increase their presence in all European parliaments without exception. The liberal consensus on which European political systems had advanced throughout the 20th century has broken down. The 21st century has also brought the normalization of political positions that only the oldest people in the area remember, showing how weak memory is and how necessary its recovery.
The centrist parties in the Netherlands They thought they could broaden their electoral base by adopting far-right positions on immigration. Instead, what they have achieved is legitimize that radical right and expand its citizen support in these last legislative elections. Now Wilders’ Freedom Party is the largest party in the Dutch Parliament and has the capacity to try to form a government. The center-right party led by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius has refused to join a government coalition with Wilders, but does not rule out support from outside it. For more than ten years, the outgoing Mark Rutte imposed the cordon sanitaire on Wilders, although it gradually incorporated positions that converged with the proposals coming from the radical right. However, her successor chose to open her hand and opted for a coalition government with the Freedom Party, thinking that its support would allow her to become prime minister. She made a mistake and Wilders was ahead. Something similar also happened in Italy where the victory of Meloni was preceded by the voters’ fatigue with the traditional forces and after the Government of Monti. It is not in vain that national populism is the other side of the coin of technocracy.
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Be that as it may, the relevant thing is that all these political forces have gained weight in the current European political context, whether they are in the Government or whether they support it from outside, it seems very clear that they are managing to set the agenda on topics as relevant as immigrationand advancing dangerously in others like the European integration process or the most positions in the cultural struggle in relation to the gender and the rights of sexual minorities. But what is even more serious, they have seen how their positions became politically and socially normalized in most cases. hand in hand with the center-right. This can be seen throughout the European geography, they are in positions of power in countries like Italy with Meloni, such as Hungary with Viktor Orbánin Finland where they have joined the coalition government or in Sweden where there would be no Government without their external support. In Germany, the AfD radicals are positioned as the second political force, marking historic highs since September above 20% of voting intention and increasingly surpassing the German socialists and greens. In Austria They continue to rise, and in Poland, Law and Justice obtained 35% of electoral support, which although it will not serve to form a Government, makes it the political force with the greatest support in the Sejm even after eight years of Government. In France it’s been a while since Le Pen is part of the system and in Spain we see how Vox has managed to normalize its positions thanks to governments led by the PP. And in Portugal, Chega hopes to be a decisive force for the formation of the Government after the elections next March. Sanitary cordons no longer operate in a situation that becomes critical for the conservative and Christian democratic rights. Either they need these parties to form a Government, or they end up devoured by them, as in France or Italy.
These political forces increasingly confirm their centrality in a context like the European one where, especially since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the proposals for securitization and militarization of societies They have gained greater weight, something that, without a doubt, favors their own speeches and positions. The European elections in June 2024 They are positioned as the great test that the European project must face, and there is a risk of not achieving the qualification.