In France the Far Right is on the verge of winning power. Even if he doesn’t succeed, he will be the country’s biggest political force that just won’t have an absolute majority and will be opposed by a motley coalition. Thus, he will essentially wait until the presidential election, with an extremely increased chance of winning the presidency with all that entails for the regression not only of the country, but of Europe as a whole.
And it’s not just France. Italy is ruled by a prime minister whose ideological reference was the historical trend of Mussolini’s nostalgia. In several other countries the Far Right is the regulator. But also in our country, in every election the percentage of the Far Right increases cumulatively.
Although many are still – hypocritically – surprised, it is essentially a pre-announced deviation. Because some paved the way for it, the Far Right is not in this position in Europe by itself. Some pushed her there, some helped her gain such influence.
- It was helped at first by all those who for years were indifferent to the poorest sections of society, considering them simply expendable material for development and left them in their fears and anxieties on the economic and social margins, gradually making them the audience of the Far Right.
- It was aided by all those who dismissed the anxiety of wider sections of society about the erosion of popular sovereignty by the dynamics of globalisation, allowing the far right to counter-propose nationalism and racism as a response.
- It was helped by all those who thought that the only ideology that is really permissible is that of the “Center” which in practice translated as “live things as they are”, something that obviously many people could not identify with.
- It was helped by all those who fought, targeted, slandered and abused concepts such as solidarity, social justice, redistribution of wealth, change of society, for the benefit of a cynical individualism and neoliberalism that again allowed the populism of the Far Right to seem “anti-systemic”.
- It was helped by all those who believed that the way to limit the influence of the Far Right was to implement its immigration and refugee policies, “fences” and pushbacks.
- It was helped by all those who led the Left and the democratic space as a whole into fragmentation, retreat and often into disrepute, especially when they implemented policies that did not differ from those of the (extreme) right.
- It was helped by all those who celebrate the end of great ideologies, invest in individualistic and narcissistic society, hide history, adopt – often veiled – extreme right-wing rhetoric, familiarizing more and more, mainly with reduced education, and therefore resistance and crisis, parts of society with the monster of post-fascist (or rather secret-fascist) ideology.
- It was helped by all those who even now chew on empty phrases and recycle all sorts of ambitions instead of trying to see how there can be a faction again that can represent another policy that answers the needs of the social majority, that is, the middle class and the popular strata.
Because things are simple: history has shown that the answer to the Far Right is neither the Center Right nor the Center (which is often “extreme Center”). On the contrary, these areas probably pave the way for the Far Right.
An answer can only be given by a reconstituted democratic space capable of combining the demand of democracy with that of social justice, forming a majority social alliance capable not only of stopping the social cannibalism of the Far Right, but also of responding to society’s anguish.
