Two resounding “slaps” of awakening in just 72 hours. You don’t say much about the democratic world from the here and there evil invasion of the Far Right. Especially when they are not the first and, it seems, not even the last…
On Monday, Argentina – Latin America’s third largest economy, but with 143% inflation and a 40% poverty rate – woke up with far-right populist Javier Millay as president.
A self-described “anarcho-capitalist” economist with few political credentials and plenty of mental instability, brandishing a chainsaw and promising to cut “the state to pieces,” he was elected with nearly 56%.
With the “backs” of the Right, he “capitalized” on popular dissatisfaction with the inefficient government of the center-left Peronists.
It was a vote of desperation, in the name of a change at any price and against the background of historical oblivion – in the midst of it all, Miley has by his side, as vice-president, one of the apologists of the austere Videla dictatorship.
In Wednesday’s parliamentary elections, meanwhile, the Netherlands – Europe’s fifth largest economy and one of the founding states of the EU – emerged as the first force in the far-right Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders.
Known for years on the domestic and European political scene for his anti-Islamic and anti-European agenda, he went under the “radar” of opinion polls during the pre-election period, while his main right-wing opponents “rekindled” his anti-immigration rhetoric.
This tactic proved disastrous for the latter and beneficial for the leader of the Dutch far-right, who in the meantime focused on the economic crisis.
And so, while many considered the 60-year-old Wilders to be nearing the end of his political career, he eventually found himself leading talks to form a new coalition government, albeit with an uncertain outcome. The European and US presidential elections in 2024 are meanwhile… dangerously close.
The worst to come?
In Argentina, the majority did not seem to be troubled by the fact that Miley is a disturbing combination of the former – and potential next – President of the USA, Donald Trump and the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, who led their countries into a deep institutional crisis.
In the Netherlands of economic crisis, respectively, Wilders victory did not come from nowhere.
Although the nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, remains politically the longest-serving of all, the “dance” is now being dragged by the post-fascist Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, who is now welcomed with hugs in the European political “living rooms”.
In France, Marine Le Pen – who is eyeing the presidency in 2027 – was just recently at the forefront of the mobilization in Paris against anti-Semitism, alongside other political leaders.
She showed little sign of flinching at the criticism of the methodical communication “lifting” of the far-right faction that she inherited from her father, a convicted Holocaust denier, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
In Finland and Sweden – a new member and a member to join NATO respectively, in the midst of the war in Ukraine – the Far Right, in cooperation with the Center Right, is a government partner in Helsinki and in Stockholm it supports the government parliamentaryly.
In Spain the right-wing People’s Party and in Poland the nationalist populist Law and Justice were willing to co-govern with far-right parties, but in the recent polls they did not win.
In Germany – where the government under the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz is in shambles and, with it, Europe’s largest economy – the far-right AfD is now firmly second in the polls.
In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party is already sewing a suit for a return to power in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the prospect of US President Biden’s re-election against Donald Trump is becoming increasingly “blurred”.
Is it their fault?
The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictive measures that accompanied it created fertile ground for the spread of conspiracy theories and for the radicalization of part of the population.
The economic impact of the lockdowns became even more painful with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with consequences stretching from the crisis in the energy and financial sectors to the international geopolitical arena.
The outbreak of the new, parallel war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas and the civilian bloodshed in the Gaza Strip are causing additional, powerful turmoil.
They test alliances, but also American power.
They put in the “framework” not only of the Global South, but also of public opinion the leaderships of the “West of democratic values” for a policy of “two measures and stations”, depending on the geopolitical stake of each crisis.
They reveal for the umpteenth time the weakened interventionist role of the EU, while a wave of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia is recorded in its territories.
And the acrobatics of the “27” with the asylum policy and the fears of new immigration waves give new “food” to far-right, nationalist and neo-fascist formations, in the midst of an explosion of inequalities and economic insecurity.
Simplistic or methodical offsets, combined with restrictions on freedom of expression by invoking security reasons – such as banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations in various European cities – intensify polarization.
All this in the midst of a pervasive sense of general impasse. With two wars going on.
With geopolitical competition at its extremes – so much so that the nuclear threat is coming back to the fore more and more often. But also the absence of practical and fair solutions to the problems of everyday life.
The result is the deterioration of traditional and non-power parties, from the right to the left, but also the direct questioning of institutions and values. Fatefully, the need to return to real politics, beyond that of TikTok, seems imperative.
