The New Right Is On A Roll In Europe

The writer is FT contributing editor and is writing a book on the rise of the New Right in Europe

A recent conference in London on “national conservatism” was largely dismissed as a pointless display of minority political tension. It was seen as a reactionary platform to advance criticism from the right of the UK government’s policy, particularly on immigration. An American import, better kept at home.

But it is not. National conservatism, rooted in homeland, family, Christian observance and sovereignty, has been a part of British conservatism since its inception. More than that, it has now emerged as the operating system of the New Right, or hard-right, parties of the European Union. Despite Brexit, British national conservatism paradoxically helps form the basis of these pro-European parties.

In her conference speech, Home Secretary Suella Braverman insisted that “we need to reduce overall immigration numbers”. He referred to Italy, as well as Greece and Denmark, as countries that “see things the same way”.

The two parties that broke away in the general elections last September – the Sweden Democrats and the Brothers of Italy, whose leader, Giorgia Meloni, is Italy’s first female premier – are strongly Anglo-conservative in political orientation. Mattias Carlsson, the architect of the Sweden Democrats’ election manifesto, told me he respected the work of the late Tory philosopher Sir Roger Scruton.

Meloni also looks to British conservatism as an ideal. His 2021 autobiography, ayo sono giorgia (“I am Georgia”), quotes Scruton as saying that “the most important thing a human being can do is to settle down, to make a home, and to pass it on to his children”. The cult of Scruton spreads: there is a small chain of three Scruton cafes in Budapest.

New right wing groups are also active. Vox, Spain’s third-largest party, significantly increased its number of councilors in last month’s regional elections and could form a coalition with the centre-right People’s Party if it wins the national election in July. An Ifop poll in April found that Marine Le Pen was the most popular politician in France.

The Finnish National Coalition Party and the New Right Finns Party announced a governing coalition on Friday, despite unease from many Conservative members.

The Alternative for Germany, now rejected by all of the country’s mainstream parties as a coalition partner at the national level, is doing well enough in polls to raise questions about whether to return the opposition centre-right Christian Democrats. May or may not have to cooperate with it. Government.

Yet a report by the German Institute for Human Rights said the AfD met all the conditions needed for authorities to consider banning it. It claims it pursues “racist and right-wing extremist goals”, shifts the boundaries of acceptable speech to normalize racist and nationalist positions, and seeks to undermine constitutional guarantees of the inviolability of human dignity. Is.

Key elements of New Right thinking include tougher barriers to illegal immigration, less legal immigration and hostility to the EU – not to the extent of British exit but determined to prevent further integration and reduce what has already happened. With determination.

They include a firm belief in the family as the basis of morality, communities and the nation; efforts to raise the birth rate, now running well below replacement level in Europe; and a vision of “enlightenment”, cancel culture and retrospective blame for imperialism as threats to democratic values.

Many parties strongly support Christianity, although they fear it will disappear in a few decades. Meloni emphasized his Catholic faith and attachment to the late doctrinally conservative Pope Benedict XVI.

New Right parties are often framed as neo-fascist or post-fascist. Some, such as the Democrats of Sweden and the Brothers of Italy, have their roots in that world. Yet they are discrediting themselves as national conservatives, free of far-right views, racism and antisemitism. They propose a cross-class appeal, with an emphasis on the working and lower middle classes, their core voters.

Voters from these sections, especially men, increasingly see themselves as better represented by the new right than by the old left.

After Italy and Sweden, more such parties are likely to make electoral gains in Europe. For all of them, the challenge will be to prove that they can govern competently and remain democratic despite the concern and alarm of their detractors.