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The specter of the far right haunts Europe. The strength of populist, nationalist and illiberal forces in the European Parliament elections and in the ongoing parliamentary elections in France is causing anxiety throughout the political world, especially in France, where there is panic over Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
But fear and loathing of a party with a tradition of hateful rhetoric, while understandable, is not a sufficient political response.
Much of mainstream European politics Quarantine LineThe purge of elected officials from the right wing of traditional conservative parties. During the election campaign, these parties are portrayed not only as political opponents but as a threat to democracy itself. Quarantine Line This would rule out not only a coalition government with them, but also cooperation in parliament.
It is time to acknowledge that this approach can sometimes do more harm than good – most obviously, it has failed to stop right-wing nationalists from winning over voters across Europe in recent decades.
Portraying a party as so far removed from the community’s political norms that it should never be allowed to get close to power can backfire. It reinforces voters’ sense that traditional elites despise and ignore them, which is part of what draws people to protest in the first place. Devising ways to marginalize them can also undermine respect for democratic norms. If a party is constantly prevented from influencing policy (regardless of its success, actions, or platform), how can its voters believe that democracy will give due consideration to their grievances? What stake in the norms do such parties themselves have?
It is dangerous to demonize the parties (of which there are many) that are trying to rid themselves of their own toxins. The RN has been on the best behavior in the outgoing French parliament for some time, cracking down on the most extreme racists. Le Pen presenting the RN as the most responsible actor on the political stage gives it some credibility. To many apathetic voters, panicked warnings from other politicians sound hysterical and only make the RN more likable.
In some countries, Quarantine LineThe experiences of Norway and Finland in accepting right-wing populists into center-right coalitions are instructive. They realized they could gain a share of power, and the public attention that would come with it encouraged them to polish their roughest edges and compromise to get what they wanted. In Norway, the bizarre result was the combination of a road-building boom and a steep carbon tax.
In Sweden, the parliamentary support agreement Quarantine Line The opposition to the Sweden Democrats, a party that was and remains worse than its Nordic counterparts, provided incentives to redirect racist attacks toward democratic accountability. (Sweden and Finland bucked the trend of far-right gains in EU elections.) And the party of Italian leader Giorgia Meloni proved more pragmatic than expected when it came to power.
This hasn’t always worked: Austria’s Freedom Party has never looked calm after a long run of governments riddled with corruption scandals and Russian influence in the intelligence services; Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Jarosław Kaczynski in Poland have used their power to undermine democratic institutions, to say nothing of Donald Trump.
But the truth is that far-right parties in Europe are extremely diverse. That is why they are unable to exert their influence in the European Parliament. Their lack of coherence has led national governments to ignore them, but they have mistakenly ignored the political diversity that creates this weakness. There is a difference between pursuing ugly policies and subverting democracy.
In the Nordic countries, it has been good for democracy to reward right-wing extremist parties that take steps towards respectability, but it should not do so for clearly anti-democratic parties like the Alternative for Germany. Quarantine Line Remains healthy.
What about RN? Le Pen’s attempt Demonization And the party’s desperate backtracking shows it is more interested in succeeding within the system than in defeating it. Most of the French elite don’t believe this, and they may be right. Maybe the RN themselves don’t know it.
Europeans must ask themselves how much faith they have in the civilizing power of their institutions. Judging by polling trends, our best hope may lie in trusting the moderating effect of democracy.
Email: martin.sandbu@ft.com
