2023-06-27 04:12:20
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, from the PP, triumphs in Madrid with an anti-feminist speech.
In Germany, the election of an AfD councilor in a district of Thuringia causes controversy. But across Europe there is a move to the right and towards nationalism.
Spain was something like the last bastion of the left in Europe, but it fell a month ago: in the regional and municipal elections, the forces of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who called early elections, were severely punished. The winners were the conservatives of the Popular Party (PP), with its new star, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in Madrid. But, above all, the Vox party was strengthened, which will probably co-govern in the future in various municipalities and autonomous regions.
It is no coincidence that among the first to congratulate Vox was Viktor Orbán, who was pleased that the “right-wing reconquest” of Spain is advancing.
Hungary: the example of Orbán
The Hungarian prime minister set the tone for Europe’s turn to the right. In April 2022, he achieved his fourth consecutive term, despite the fact that the opposition had run united in the elections.
Orbán and his right-wing nationalist Fidez party had proclaimed in 2014 an “illiberal democracy” following the Russian model. Since then, the xenophobic tone has been part of his government program. He justified his refusal to receive refugees by arguing that the Hungarians “do not want to become a mixed race” and that the multicultural Western European countries “are no longer nations.”
France: Le Pen’s advance
After Orbán’s electoral triumph, Marine Le Pen sent her congratulations quickly to Budapest. Her party, her National Group (RN), notably improved her results in the parliamentary elections a year ago, and the leader tirelessly pursues her long-term project: reaching the Elysee Palace.
The next step on his path: a victory in the European Parliament elections in 2024. A goal that no longer seems impossible to achieve, given that, for the past ten years, more and more French people have leaned to the right.
Italy: Meloni and the shadows of fascism
Giorgia Meloni did not need much preamble; Her radical right-wing party with fascist roots “Fratelli d’Italia” arose almost out of nowhere and, with her victory in the parliamentary elections of September 2022, led to her becoming Prime Minister of Italy.
The party shield features the green, white and red flame which, on the Italian right, symbolizes the eternal flame found on Mussolini’s tomb. Meloni, who began his political career in a neo-fascist youth organization, says of the Duce that he is “a complex personality, who must be seen in context.”
The “Sweden Democrats”
Jimmie Åkesson, on the other hand, had to go a long way to the right. In his youth, the head of the populist right-wing “Sweden Democrats,” was considered a moderate. The party, founded in 1988 by members of far-right circles, became the second largest political force in the country last year.
Since then, it has besieged the center-right government with slogans that are hostile to immigration and Islam. For Åkesson, Muslims are “the greatest danger to Sweden since World War II.”
Finland: reduce immigration
In Finland, the Finns Party has already managed to reach the government, with a four-party coalition. This populist right-wing party won seven ministries. His boss, Riikka Purra, wants to move the country to the right with a “paradigm shift” on immigration. She proposes reducing the immigrant quota to 500.
Slovakia: Neo-Nazis in Parliament
Marian Kotleba.Imagen: Marek Molnar/AA/picture alliance
Purra is a moderate compared to Marian Kotleba, head of the neo-fascist L’SNS party, which is among the most radical neo-Nazis in Slovakia. This man, whom his followers call “Führer” and agitates preferably against Roma, Jews and homosexuals, was sentenced in 2022 to a remitted sentence for promoting an ideology that threatens democracy, and had to surrender his seat in the National Parliament .
His party won eight percent in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
Greece: the results on the right
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakios Mitsotakis won the elections on Sunday (25.06.23), but there was a shift to the right in Greece: the right-wing populist Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution), the ultra-nationalist and ultra-religious Niki (Victory) and Spartans, successor of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party banned in 2020, collectively won nearly 13 percent of the vote for Parliament.
(ers/elm)
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