The Rise of Right-Wing Populist Parties in Europe 

(Trigger warning:  homophobia, racism, xenophobia, misogyny and general bullshit)

 

 

The ‘far right’ or ‘far-right extremism’ is a loose term with no singular definition. It suggests that it is not part of the popular mainstream and should not be considered a genuine threat. In reality, what would have been considered as going too far or even fascist; if you were feeling radical, is now considered acceptable. You have to look at the origins of the modern far right which rests in the Fascist, Eugenics and National Socialist Movements of the Early Twentieth century.

 

 

Fascism is defined as prioritising the nation over the individual, who exists to serve the nation. It opposes pluralism, individual rights, equality and democratic government. By elevating the rights of the national community, it ficstates itself on exterminating perceived threats to that community and isolating itself politically and economically. Now as a continent, we like to assume that we left fascism and national socialism in a locked box, thrown away eighty years ago.

 

 

Geert Wilder and three other party leaders won the Dutch election in November 2023. Although supposedly agreeing to hold off on banning the Quran, Islamic schools and closing Mosques, his coalition want to place strong measures on migrant workers. His anti-immigration policy and support for investment in defence and agriculture pursed the Dutch of his legitimacy. Even though he had to withdraw his application as a member of parliament in 2010, the intelligence service considered him a “risk to the integrity of the Netherlands”.

 

Over in France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally Party (RN) has been gaining traction but it failed to win a majority in the French elections. National Rally (RN) was started Le Pen’s father and included former members of the Nazi-led Waffen SS unit. Le Pen’s policies focus on anti-immigration, speaking on behalf of so-called “ordinary people”. She has gained a lot of traction, with 28% of the youth vote. National Rally messages often depict young men in uniform or snippets of interviews with Black or Muslim individuals who claim to advocate for anti-immigration legislation based on “personal experience” of their home country.

 

 

 

Despite the implementation of anti-fascist education programmes in Germany after World War Two, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has started gaining popularity. In Thuringia, one of the sixteen German states boasting a population of five million people, the AfD won 36% of the under-thirties votes. This gave the far right its first win in parliament since World War Two. For perspective, an AfD official Björn Höcke was fined for doing the Nazi salute and the party was classified as a right-wing extremist organisation by domestic intelligence in Thuringia. It has been defended by the likes of Elon Musk who has received considerable backlash online for his so-called “Roman Salute” during Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

 

In Italy, Giorgia Meloni the leader of the Brothers of Italy, has become the first female Italian Prime Minister of the most right-wing government since World War Two. She supports anti-queer, anti-Muslim and anti-immigration policies. With her slogan, “God, Country, Family” it is hard to dispute that her politics is exclusionary at best. She has fought against substantial evidence that her party is fascist, with its founding members made up of Mussolini’s supporters and her party has kept the iconic tricolour flame.

 

 

Despite their geographical differences all of these far-right political parties are united in their political objectives: the preservation of ‘white’ culture, isolationism, xenophobia and politically ‘no nonsense’. Which, is eerily similar to the original tenants of fascism despite their constant denial of that being the class. Most importantly they are based on hypocrisy.

 

The rise of slogans such as ‘”France for the French” and “England and English” are based on the fear of the erasure of those cultures by unknown foreigners. Those same parties are actively engaged in the suppression of the arts, humanities, educational institutions and heritage sites. For example, Nigel Farage in The Reform Party manifesto vowed to implement a “Patriotic Curriculum in Primary and Secondary Schools” which would focus on English success. Furthermore, in an interview with ITV, he vowed to scrap fees for “science, technology, engineering, medicine or maths”. However, everyone else is “better of learning trades” rather than studying so-called ‘Mickey Mouse degrees’. This view is also been boasted by Le Pen and members of the AfD. Universities such as Cardiff are choosing to scrap courses such as modern languages, ancient history, music, religion, theology and nursing. Instead of choosing to preserve the culture they hold so dearly, they look down upon it as not being productive and actively damaging society.

 

 

All of the political leaders mentioned previously have publicly stated that they want to leave the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Union. These international bodies act to hold governments accountable for their treatment of their populations. By politically isolating themselves, citizens cannot advocate for themselves in neutral territory and nations cannot deescalate existing tensions. Supposedly this is to cut through bureaucratic red tape but in actuality, it removes the checks and balances to preserve human rights and democracy. They also support self-sustaining policies and ignore the fact that trade and international collaboration are integral to the survival of a nation. Are these institutions perfect? Absolutely not, and have received a lot of well-deserved criticism for their shortcomings. However, as a globalised society, nations cannot afford to lock themselves away especially when facing issues such as climate crises, pandemics and economic recessions.

 

The most terrifying part of these far-right parties is their anti-immigration policies. It has only been 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Yet the amount of xenophobia is only rising across the World. From President Donald Trump giving U.S Immigration and Customs (ICE) the ability to raid Churches and Schools for “illegal aliens” and “criminals”. The dehumanisation of migrants and immigrants shows a turn in the normalisation of racism and xenophobia in mainstream politics. Similarly in Europe, the likes of Reform, Afd, National Rally and others want to forcibly remove all those suspected of being illegal immigrants. They mostly target asylum seekers from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, contrary to popular belief are not all Muslims though many are. They justify this by suggesting that they are criminals or religious zealots who want to impose their values and culture, depicting it akin to invasion. This is based on the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ from a book by Renaud Camus published in 2012. He postulated that black and brown immigrants were reverse-colonizing ‘white’ Europeans. This is not so far from the racial sciences and eugenics studied by Joseph Mengel, that Germans were biologically different from and superior to members of all other races.

 

 

Interestingly, Kemi Badenoch, a Black British woman of Nigerian descent, and Alice Weidel, who is openly gay, are leading faces of the far-right. Kemi Badenoch, current head of the Conservative Party, has gone on record to state that she believes that not all cultures are equal, noting her experience in Nigeria. Alice Weidel who is an open queer and interracial relationship is the leader of the AfD, despite many of her colleagues opposing her ‘lifestyle’. Why would these women encourage a movement that opposes their very existence? Maybe it is because they don’t see themselves as part of the minority or that they are using it to keep power. What is obvious is that they are being used by the far-right to be seen as socially acceptable.

 

 

Researching this piece brought back memories from a visit that I paid to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in 2019. Built on the outskirts of the bustling streets of Berlin, a grey parade ground with rickety gallows and three nooses swinging under a dreary clouded sky. It has not been one hundred years since the far-right was given full reign to exact its agenda on those it considered illegal, dangerous or unproductive.