Last month, after Spain’s conservative and hard-right parties crushed the left in local elections, the winners in Elche, a small southeastern town, signed an agreement with consequences for the future of Spain – and the rest of Europe. The candidate from the conservative Popular Party had a chance to govern, but he needed the hard-right Vox party, which, in return for its support during council votes, received the deputy mayor position and a new administrative body to defend the traditional family.
“This coalition model could be a good model for the whole of Spain,” said Pablo Ruz Villanueva, Elche’s new mayor, referring to upcoming national elections July 23, which most polls suggest will oust liberal PM Pedro Sanchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. The new deputy mayor from Vox, Aurora Rodil Martinez, went further: “My party will do everything that’s necessary to make that happen.” If Rodil’s wish comes true, with Vox joining a coalition with more moderate conservatives, it would become the first right-wing party since the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to enter the national government.
The rise of Vox is part of an increasing trend of hard-right parties surging in popularity and, in some cases, gaining power by entering governments as junior partners. The parties have differences but fear the economic ramifications of globalisation and that their countries will lose their national identities to migration and an empowered EU they believe looks after only the elites. Some argue the hard right needs to be marginalised, as was the case for over a half-century after WWII. Others fear the hard right has grown too large to be ignored and that the only choice is to bring them into governing in the hopes of normalising them.
In Sweden, the government now depends on the parliamentary votes of a party with neo-Nazi roots and has given it some sway in policymaking. In Finland, where the right has ascended into the governing coalition, the nationalist Finns party has risked destabilising it, with a key minister from that far-right party resigning last month after it emerged that he had made “Heil Hitler” jokes. On Friday, the Dutch government led by Mark Rutte, a conservative and the Netherlands’ longest-serving PM, collapsed because more centrist parties in his coalition considered his efforts to curb migration too harsh. Rutte has had to guard his right flank against surging populists and a long-standing hard-right party. In Italy, the far-right has taken power on its own. But so far, PM Giorgia Meloni, politically reared in parties born from the ashes of fascism and a close ally of Spain’s Vox, has governed more moderately than many expected – bolstering some analysts’ argument that the reality of governing can be a moderating force.
Elsewhere, hard-right parties are breaking through in countries where they had recently seemed contained. In France, the once fringe party of far-right leader Marine Le Pen has become an established force as entrenched anger against President Macron has newly exploded over issues like pension changes and integration and policing of the country’s minority communities.
And in Germany, where the right has long been taboo, economic uncertainty and a new surge in arrivals by asylum-seekers have helped resurrect the far-right Alternative for Germany party. It is now the leading party in the formerly Communist eastern states, according to polls, and is even gaining popularity in the wealthier and more liberal west.
While far-right parties in different countries don’t have identical proposals, they generally want to close the doors to and cut benefits off for migrants; hit the pause, or reverse, button when it comes to LGBTQ rights; and stake out more protectionist trade policies. Some are suspicious of Nato and dubious about climate change and sending arms to Ukraine.
“This coalition model could be a good model for the whole of Spain,” said Pablo Ruz Villanueva, Elche’s new mayor, referring to upcoming national elections July 23, which most polls suggest will oust liberal PM Pedro Sanchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. The new deputy mayor from Vox, Aurora Rodil Martinez, went further: “My party will do everything that’s necessary to make that happen.” If Rodil’s wish comes true, with Vox joining a coalition with more moderate conservatives, it would become the first right-wing party since the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to enter the national government.
The rise of Vox is part of an increasing trend of hard-right parties surging in popularity and, in some cases, gaining power by entering governments as junior partners. The parties have differences but fear the economic ramifications of globalisation and that their countries will lose their national identities to migration and an empowered EU they believe looks after only the elites. Some argue the hard right needs to be marginalised, as was the case for over a half-century after WWII. Others fear the hard right has grown too large to be ignored and that the only choice is to bring them into governing in the hopes of normalising them.
In Sweden, the government now depends on the parliamentary votes of a party with neo-Nazi roots and has given it some sway in policymaking. In Finland, where the right has ascended into the governing coalition, the nationalist Finns party has risked destabilising it, with a key minister from that far-right party resigning last month after it emerged that he had made “Heil Hitler” jokes. On Friday, the Dutch government led by Mark Rutte, a conservative and the Netherlands’ longest-serving PM, collapsed because more centrist parties in his coalition considered his efforts to curb migration too harsh. Rutte has had to guard his right flank against surging populists and a long-standing hard-right party. In Italy, the far-right has taken power on its own. But so far, PM Giorgia Meloni, politically reared in parties born from the ashes of fascism and a close ally of Spain’s Vox, has governed more moderately than many expected – bolstering some analysts’ argument that the reality of governing can be a moderating force.
Elsewhere, hard-right parties are breaking through in countries where they had recently seemed contained. In France, the once fringe party of far-right leader Marine Le Pen has become an established force as entrenched anger against President Macron has newly exploded over issues like pension changes and integration and policing of the country’s minority communities.
And in Germany, where the right has long been taboo, economic uncertainty and a new surge in arrivals by asylum-seekers have helped resurrect the far-right Alternative for Germany party. It is now the leading party in the formerly Communist eastern states, according to polls, and is even gaining popularity in the wealthier and more liberal west.
While far-right parties in different countries don’t have identical proposals, they generally want to close the doors to and cut benefits off for migrants; hit the pause, or reverse, button when it comes to LGBTQ rights; and stake out more protectionist trade policies. Some are suspicious of Nato and dubious about climate change and sending arms to Ukraine.
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