[SS from essay by Hans Kundnani, Visiting Fellow at the Remarque Institute at New York University and the author of Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire, and Race in the European Project.]
In the European parliamentary elections in June, far-right political parties did better than ever before. Two far-right alliances are now the third- and fourth-largest groupings in the parliament, ahead of the centrist Renew Europe group. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) emerged as the largest party by far in the European polls, which prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve his country’s National Assembly and call snap elections. The RN did not win an absolute majority in those votes, but it became the biggest single party in the domestic legislative body for the first time.
These recent electoral gains of the far right in France—as well as successes in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe—have caused no small amount of consternation. The far right’s successes in the last couple of years have forced many centrist proponents of the [European Union](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/topics/european-union) to wake up to the possibility of a far-right takeover of the EU, something that was long thought of as a conceptual and practical impossibility. From the perspective of these alarmed centrists, the nationalism of the far right poses a fundamental threat to the project of European integration. They see the far right as a kind of alien force inherently antithetical to the EU—it is “anti-European.”
This is a very American view to a European problem. The rise of the right has stopped in countries where left wing parties have taken an anti-immigration stance. The US also has immigration issues but the reality in countries like Germany, the Netherlands or Scandinavian countries is that the social welfare provides many benefits to these immigrants, while in the US, everyone has to fend from themselves. On top of this, very visible terrorist acts from immigrants and refugees have given a very negative view towards immigration.
>They see the far right as a kind of alien force inherently antithetical to the EU—it is “anti-European.”
It’s a strange framing to say that democratic representation of “right-wing” ideals is “anti-European”. Which implies that EU membership and integration is inherently the right “European” position to hold.
If the democratic voice of citizens in European countries is asking for “right wing” positions like immigration control, free speech, or whatever else is suddenly “Trumpian” by leftist standards (and would be standard capital L liberal positions to hold, hardly “right wing”) then the countries of Europe aught respect and act on what the democratic consensus is for how the citizens of those countries want their countries to operate.
To whole reason the “right wing” is surging in Europe is because people aren’t feeling served by left wing governing coalitions and are exercising their vote for someone who actually speaks about issues they care about.
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[SS from essay by Hans Kundnani, Visiting Fellow at the Remarque Institute at New York University and the author of Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire, and Race in the European Project.]
In the European parliamentary elections in June, far-right political parties did better than ever before. Two far-right alliances are now the third- and fourth-largest groupings in the parliament, ahead of the centrist Renew Europe group. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) emerged as the largest party by far in the European polls, which prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve his country’s National Assembly and call snap elections. The RN did not win an absolute majority in those votes, but it became the biggest single party in the domestic legislative body for the first time.
These recent electoral gains of the far right in France—as well as successes in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe—have caused no small amount of consternation. The far right’s successes in the last couple of years have forced many centrist proponents of the [European Union](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/topics/european-union) to wake up to the possibility of a far-right takeover of the EU, something that was long thought of as a conceptual and practical impossibility. From the perspective of these alarmed centrists, the nationalism of the far right poses a fundamental threat to the project of European integration. They see the far right as a kind of alien force inherently antithetical to the EU—it is “anti-European.”
This is a very American view to a European problem. The rise of the right has stopped in countries where left wing parties have taken an anti-immigration stance. The US also has immigration issues but the reality in countries like Germany, the Netherlands or Scandinavian countries is that the social welfare provides many benefits to these immigrants, while in the US, everyone has to fend from themselves. On top of this, very visible terrorist acts from immigrants and refugees have given a very negative view towards immigration.
>They see the far right as a kind of alien force inherently antithetical to the EU—it is “anti-European.”
It’s a strange framing to say that democratic representation of “right-wing” ideals is “anti-European”. Which implies that EU membership and integration is inherently the right “European” position to hold.
If the democratic voice of citizens in European countries is asking for “right wing” positions like immigration control, free speech, or whatever else is suddenly “Trumpian” by leftist standards (and would be standard capital L liberal positions to hold, hardly “right wing”) then the countries of Europe aught respect and act on what the democratic consensus is for how the citizens of those countries want their countries to operate.
To whole reason the “right wing” is surging in Europe is because people aren’t feeling served by left wing governing coalitions and are exercising their vote for someone who actually speaks about issues they care about.