Cannot Wish The Right Wing Away In Europe Anymore

High prices, low growth, imposition costs of a green transition, rampant and disruptive immigration that preys on limited resources, all have contributed to the rise of right-wing and far-right parties in Western Europe.

An immigrant that does not say thank you, instead attempts to impose its foreign will, is a big departure from earlier waves of foreign arrivals. Then the newcomer tried his best to integrate with the ethos of the host country and in a few years succeeded in doing so.  

The hard-liners amongst the right-wingers alone will win about 25% of the seats in the EU assembly at Brussels, in elections conducted on the 9^th of June. Predictably, they are already demanding a say in policy in proportion to their expected strength.  

The current centre-right leadership of the EU under Ursula Von der Leyen and her European People’s Party (EPP), as the biggest group, can hold out for now. It can possibly win a second term too. The EPP can obtain a majority after the counting is done, with some moderate Right-Wing support, such as from Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.  

Meloni has extended a warm invitation to perceived fellow right-wing leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to attend the outreach sessions of the G7 Summit Italy is currently hosting. Prime Minister Modi is expected to attend for a day very soon now.

So far, the radical Right, unlike Meloni’s moderate Right, has not been able to unite, but once that happens, it will be difficult to stave them off in European politics. Nationalist prime ministers are already in place in Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, and right-wing parties are in the government of several other countries.

The right-wing reaction is to past liberal immigration policies that led to a flood of mainly Islamic middle easterners, both legal, and illegal - boat people and overland infiltrators. They do provide cheap labour but at what cost? They have come typically from Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, plus the countries of North Africa, Turkiye.

These immigrants, with aggressive anti-western attitudes, are unable to identify with the liberal post-war Judeo-Christian ethic and way of life.

So they resort to violence in the name of Allah, indulge in gang-based molestation of women, rape, murder. In their culture they do not allow uncovered women in public. And going to the West to avail of a better standard of living does not mean one has to accept their ways.

The targets willy nilly are the very native White populations. These indigenous Europeans are now fed up with immigrants exhorting them to give up their sinful ways and adopt Islam. The immigrants themselves tend to live in ghettoes that they barricade. They refuse to let the state police or other authorities into their areas even as they seek to introduce Shariah laws for their community.

In reaction to this daylight hijacking, the right-wing has now mobilised politically. Their parties are dedicated to resisting such immigrant dictation. Many want the immigrants deported and the laws tightened.

The right-wing has many other grouses beyond immigration. They resent the perceived excesses of the Green Movement, the banning of cars based on Co2 emissions, for example. They do not like orders from a bureaucratic council in Brussels. They increasingly find the EU itself stifling and restrictive, but have shelved the earlier ideas of wrecking it in favour of influencing it from within.

The people who back these right-wing organisations often disagree with prevailing economic policy they see as anti-nationalist. Likewise, many governance issues are not perceived to be in their best interests. The liberal dispensation and its court systems have laws that make matters worse by allowing the immigrants, for example, to conduct themselves with impunity.

Right-wing parties such as the Swiss People’s Party, dominate in Switzerland even though it is not in the EU. Far-rightists rule in Italy, Brothers of Italy, Lega. In Hungary it is the Fidesz. The right-wing Finns Party is part of the government in Finland. In Sweden, the right-wing Swedish Democrats are prominent. In Serbia, the right-wing United Serbia is in a dominant place.

In the recent EU elections, centre-right and far-right parties have done well in France and Germany, the two biggest economies in the EU. As results trickle in, we see that in France, the far-right Nationalist Rally has already won a big victory. Early results suggest the right-wing would win 32% of the vote, double the votes in favour of Macron’s liberals. In reaction, President Emmanuel Macron has promptly dissolved parliament and called for a snap election. If he loses still, will the right-wing under Marie Le Pen treat India with the same warmth? Most likely, as the French Right is not opposed in any way to the Modi government or the NDA.

In Germany, the centre-right is likely to win the largest number of seats followed by the far-right AfD, expected to bag second place. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Socialists cannot hope for more than coming in third. Again, India should have no difficulty dealing with Germany. In fact, the collaboration and technology transfer mechanics with the Germans could well do better. The left-leaning penchant for finger-wagging will be discontinued.

The story of the tilt towards the Right repeats itself in almost all of the 27-member country EU. And the trend line is unmistakeable.

There is a similar movement in America, with the rising possibility of Donald Trump and a decidedly conservative Republican Party winning a second term in November.

Some analysts are pointing towards a similar rightwards trend globally, though the liberal- left is also tightening its belt. Is this because of tougher economic struggles that affect everybody? The rising intolerance towards foreign immigration certainly points in that direction. Initiatives of government that further burden the tax payer rather than strengthening his arm are becoming unpopular. When they are intended to potentially benefit the cause of planetary issues such as global warming, it becomes all the more annoying because people issues should have come first.

In fact, globalisation, once the buzzword for progress, is now regarded as an inconvenience to be controlled. Import tariffs are going up and restrictive visa regimes are being imposed.

It may be impossible to retreat behind protectionist walls beyond a point, but national interests, rather than international ones, are the new points of emphasis.

Is this going to slow progress? If it does, countries around the world, and not just in Europe, seem to be prepared for it. The idea of gaining what you lose on the swing road being made up at the roundabout, is presently not very popular. The generosity of globalisation is being replaced by ‘me first’ policies. Is this cyclic and likely to revert to form once the economic conditions improve? Probably not. The bilateral give and take is the more likely model going forward, rather than outfits like the WTO or some UN agency.

(1,145 words)

May 10^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee