“After our victory you will be able to raise your head and finally verbalize what you have always believed in.” In a show of sincerity, the post-fascist leader Giorgia Meloni harangued like this to his supporters just days before he won the Italian elections. His victory, above 26% of the votes, is one more onslaught of the reactionary surge that intends to drag the European Union (EU) towards brown currents.
The extreme right Europe has taken advantage of the crises of the last decade to regroup, making good the somber words that the philosopher Antonio Gramsci launched a century ago. “In this chiaroscuro, monsters arise & rdquor ;, he warned. Boosted after the financial explosion of 2008, ultra-conservative and fascist-like formations made up his speech to abandon marginality. Shaved heads gave way to suits and ties; biological racism mutated into the chauvinism of “first those at home & rdquor ;; the Islam replaced the Jewish as a common enemy.
With the identity nationalismthe xenophobia and the rejection of the EU as the lowest common denominator, parties with different profiles exploited the fear -at the arrival of refugees in 2015 and covid in 2020— to gain a foothold in parliaments, adopting different forms to better adapt to the realities of each country. Their worldview has spread with the complicity of the traditional parties and instrumentalizing both social networks and the media, trapped in the perpetual fire of the attention economy. Now, their expectations flourish before the winds of a economic recession and global geopolitical turmoil.
In 16 of the 27 countries of the union, the main ultraconservative formations and populists of the right increased the votes received in the last elections, reaching quotas of power that a decade ago seemed impossible. In 15 they exceed double digits in votes. The mirage is already an oasis for the reactionary international call.
reactionary governments
The ultra spearhead on the continent rises from Hungary Y Poland, the only two countries in which the extreme right has governed for years with overwhelming majorities. Víktor Orbán, from Budapest, and Mateusz Morawiecki, from Warsaw, lead two illiberal democracies that have dealt important blows against the rule of law. Both executives have curtailed freedoms for women and the community LGBTIhave criminalized migration with a Islamophobic rhetoric and they are handcuffing both the judicial system and the media.
Other countries where the extreme right governs as minority coalition partners are Estonia, latvia Y Slovakiathe only member of the EU that also has a presence neo-Nazi in your parliament. They all share a nationalist, identitarian, traditionalist and xenophobic position. In 2013, the then Estonian ultra-leader Martin Helme summed up his immigration policy thus: “If you are black, go & rdquor ;. Sweden could join this list. After coming second in the elections on September 11, the ultra Swedish Democrats party – of origins fascists and white nationalists—negotiates his entry into the executive. So that, Italy it would be the seventh EU country with an ultra presence in its government.
influence from the opposition
The ultras also have a strong presence in the four largest EU countries. In Germany, the extreme right broke into the federal parliament in 2017 for the first time since reunification, but has since deflated after a cordon sanitaire was applied to isolate the party. In France, Marine LePen he caressed power and his party is the third force in the country. In Italy, the standardization of Silvio Berlusconi to the most populist and radical speeches opened the doors of power to Matteo Salvini first and Meloni now. In Spain, vox In just three years, it has managed to become the third parliamentary force, reach the autonomous government of Castilla y León, force the PP to turn to the right and influence the national political agenda.
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In Finland and Slovenia, the extreme right has already surpassed the Christian Democrats and leads the opposition. In Belgium it is the second largest force. In Denmark and in Austria they have regressed and are the third, but only after the Danish Social Democrats and the Austrian Christian Democrats, both in power, mimicked their speech. In the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, they remain above 10% surrounded by liberal-conservative parties. in Croatia, Portugal and Romania, new ultra formations were catapulted in the last elections and are already the alternative to the traditional ones.
Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Luxembourg are the countries where the extreme right occupies a lower position in their parliaments. Even so, governing is not the only way for these policies anchored in the past to return to the present, since their influence has served to shift the balance of what is politically acceptable to the right. Without any ultra MPs, Lithuania, Malta and Ireland are the rare exceptions to this increasingly strong reactionary rise in the EU. for now