2023-11-24 01:42:39
In recent decades, far-right parties in Europe have achieved significant electoral support and growing political institutionalization, as demonstrated by the trajectory of parties such as the French National Front (FN)he Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) austriacohe Law and Justice (PiS) polco y Vox, in Spainand the victory of the Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders in the general elections, this week, in the Netherlands.
All of them are parties that unapologetically exploit the discourse of immigration, ultranationalism and social populism to increase their electoral profile and that are characterized by three defining elements.
Firstly, authoritarianism, which is a concept that refers to the belief in a strictly ordered society where violations of authority must be severely punished. Far-right parties show great sensitivity to the concept of “law and order” and, unlike the conservative right, they express and apply it in much more radical terms.
Secondly, populism which, in a European context, is associated with a critical discourse against the “corrupt elite” and which seeks the favor of the “people” as the only representation of the “true nation”.
A common characteristic of the populist extreme right consists of the continuous repetition of xenophobic slogans such as “Those at home first” (FN, France), of messages against the European Union such as “We want our country back” (UKIP, United Kingdom) that of ultranationalist proclamations such as “There is only one nation” (Vox, Spain).
Likewise, it is a populism that feeds on the unwanted effects of the globalization such as industrial relocation, increasing labor subcontracting or the reduction in the purchasing power of the middle and working classes. It is, therefore, a concept that allows us to establish a clear correlation between the rise of far-right parties and the losers of globalization.
The nativism of extremists
Third, nativism maintains that states must be inhabited by native members (the nation) and defines non-native elements (people and ideas) as a threat to the hegemonic nation-state. This nativism is a combination of ultranationalism and xenophobia and its main objective is to develop a State where national and cultural minorities are fully integrated into a dominant society model.
This conceptualization leads to the conclusion that political formations that, with greater or lesser intensity, include these three ideological elements in their program can be considered as extreme right-wing populist parties and allows us to rule out doubtful cases such as ultra-conservative parties, which tend to be defenders of the highest interests of the Nation-State, or the neo-fascist parties, which are political formations that do not accept the democratic framework of European society.
Focusing on the evolution of these formations in Europe, many authors distinguish several phases to explain their development from the end of the Second World War to the current moment.
In the first phase, the story of fascism of the 1930s is explained as a historical error or as a lapse of barbarism within civilization. That is, an extreme ideology incompatible with the founding bases of liberal Europe.
The second wave began with the emergence in 1984 of the French National Front (FN), which promoted a new political imaginary on issues such as immigration, national security or the free market. The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the Flemish Bloc (VB), the UKIP of England and the Italian Northern League (LN) also come from this era.
The third phase begins with the attack on the Twin Towers in New York (September 2001) and the subsequent financial crisis that started in 2008 and opens the doors to a growing nativism and exacerbated populism of these political formations. Dates from this era include, among others, the Dutch Pim Fortuny (LPF), Polish Law and Justice (PiS), the Finns Party of Finland, the AfD of Germany, Vox of Spain and the Party for Freedom.
This is how they win over the electorate
In relation to the resurgence of the extreme right phenomenon, numerous studies have been published focusing on countries, parties or even the relationship between the characteristics of these formations and their voters.
In this sense, the theories of demand and supply expounded by December (2007) y Kriesi (2008)among others, allows us to develop interpretations that facilitate the explanation of the rise of these political formations.
Far-right parties, like other parties, compete in the political arena to capture the largest possible electorate. And to achieve this goal, “demand” factors –those related to social development, immigration or the production and consumption model– and “supply” factors come together, which imply that a far-right party can have electoral success based on of variables such as the social structure of the country, the electoral system, the available political space or its relationship with the media.
The combination of these factors is what determines its social implementation and electoral success.
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