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The European Union and the Mainstreaming of the Radical Right

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The European Union and the Mainstreaming of the Radical Right COMMENTARY THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE MAINSTREAMING OF THE RADICAL RIGHT The European Union and the Mainstreaming of the Radical Right ARISTOTLE KALLIS* ABSTRACT Radical right wing parties have been increasingly effective in challenging and eroding this consensus, using a redemptive sov- ereigntist platform to ‘take back control’ from the EU in a number of important policy areas. Their electoral gains, but more impor- tantly their growing agenda-setting momentum, have combined with an alarming hardening of attitudes in large sectors of the po- litical and social mainstream in the same sovereigntist direction. Unless the EU shifts the discussion effectively and convincingly, addressing the causes of citizen resentment without adopting the language and logic of the right wing populists, its future as a unit- ed, politically relevant block looks uncertain. Violent Extremism and the Crisis consensus. Democracy, pluralism, of Liberal Values pacifism, respect for individual hu- man rights, freedom of movement, an institutional setup geared towards hat we nowadays call the greater supranational integration, European Union (EU) has a new model of mixed sovereignty changed dramatically in that pointed, however tentatively, in W 1 the 51 years of its existence. It has a post-national direction –these and grown in members, expanded geo- other similar values have been con- graphically, and developed institu- sidered and treated as belonging to tionally. It has also become far more the genetic makeup of the EU. complex, cumbersome even, and more far-reaching than perhaps any But what happens when this con- of its initial founders would have ever sensus is facing its most serious, dared to hope. Yet something central concerted challenge, from within * Keele has, in theory, remained the same: the EU as well as from outside? The University, UK the EU has always been –and con- world that we inhabit in 2018 is diz- Insight Turkey tinues to be– rooted in a set of values zyingly different from the one that Vol. 20 / No. 3 / that derive from the post-war liberal many took for granted only a de- 2018, pp. 61-75 DOI: 10.25253/99.2018203.04 2018 Summer 61 COMMENTARY ARISTOTLE KALLIS Far right party leaders from Italy, the Netherlands, cade ago. As one of the European rope and the wider world are moving Austria, the UK, France, Belgium Commission’s Vice-Presidents, the decisively towards a period of reas- and Poland hold a former Prime Minister of Finland, sertion of an ever more narrow and press conference Jyrki Katainen, noted recently, the exclusive national sovereignty.6 to announce a rise of Euroscepticism now poses an new grouping of existential threat to the EU.2 It is not It is the non-mainstream right that European far right parties, called just Brexit or even the avalanche of has attracted the bulk of analysts’ Europe of Nations statistics over the last years pointing attention in this regard. This broad, and Freedom, on to declining trust in the Union.3 In- diverse family extends from radical, June 16, 2015. stead, the rise of populist parties of populist and anti-establishment but EMMANUEL DUNAND various political shades in many EU non-violent organized parties of the AFP / Getty Images member states, some of which have right, to clandestine terrorist individ- now entered the government or may uals and groups fighting their own do so in the near future, has cast version of culture wars on the terrain a grave shadow on the continuing of ultra-nationalism, anti-immigra- commitment to these liberal values.4 tion, anti-multiculturalism, anti-glo- Meanwhile, the worldwide financial balization, Islamophobic and anti-Se- and refugee crises, as well as the re- mitic identity politics.7 cent backsliding into protectionism,5 have put unprecedented strain on There have been growing concerns the principles of solidarity and free about the threat posed by far right movement that constitute the pillars violence, whether coming from orga- of European integration. From the nized movements, informal networks viewpoint of 2018, it seems that Eu- or individuals.8 Especially since the 62 Insight Turkey THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE MAINSTREAMING OF THE RADICAL RIGHT turn of the new millennium, the threat of violent radicalization has For too long played down received fresh attention, especially in light of the terrorist attacks that illus- or ignored by the EU and trated its highly destructive poten- national governments alike, tial and complex transnational links. the danger of violent Taken together with the appreciable rise in instances of hate speech and in far right extremism has violent incidents against vulnerable recently come to be groups, it is now feared that we may be witnessing a much broader and recognized as one of the most more profound ‘reverse wave’ toward significant existential threats more intolerance, exclusion, and nor- to the Union and its member malization of violent extremism in contemporary societies.9 For too long states played down or ignored by the EU and national governments alike, the danger of violent far right extremism has recently come to be recognized as The Rise and the Continuing Rise one of the most significant existential of the Radical Right threats to the Union and its member states.10 Until recently, the rise of the radical right was largely presented in terms Yet it is the challenge posed by the of an unfolding threat rather than a radical, non-violent parties of the concrete reality. These parties tended non-mainstream right that has been to poll better in local, regional, and making the most of the headlines in European elections while usually recent years. These parties are be- falling short in national ones. For ex- coming increasingly successful in ample, in the most recent (2014) elec- a number of critical fields, from se- tions for the European Parliament, curing a high(er) share of the popu- the ‘Europe of Freedom and (Direct) lar vote and entering government, to Democracy’ group grew from 34 to influencing the political agenda and 45 MEPs, while strong parliamentary shifting social attitudes. Their vision constituencies of the radical right of a nativist, ‘fortress’ Europe, nation- now appear in the ‘Independents’ alist and mono-cultural, made up group with a cumulative strength of of fully sovereign nation-states, has 52 MEPs. Parties of the radical/pop- been steadily gaining traction among ulist right polled very strongly in a disaffected voters. As a result, the large number of European countries European political and social main- and delivered a political ‘earthquake,’ stream has been shifting in a sover- coming first in France and Britain eigntist direction that challenges 60 while increasing their share of the of European integration and casts a vote in Greece, Hungary, Italy, and shadow on its future prospects. elsewhere.11 2018 Summer 63 COMMENTARY ARISTOTLE KALLIS Since 2014, however, parties of the parties that had dominated the po- radical right have made their pres- litical scene in previous decades have ence felt more emphatically in the seen their electoral appeal decline electoral field, including countries dramatically (as in the case of the where they were previously unsuc- Socialist Party in France and Spain, cessful or under-represented. The the Democratic Party in Italy, and landscape changed dramatically af- the Social Democrats in Germany) ter more recent elections in Austria or collapse altogether (as happened (where the Freedom Party secured in Greece, the Czech Republic, and 26 percent in 2017), France (where the Netherlands).14 In comparison, Marine Le Pen received 21.30 percent the recent electoral fortunes of the and 33.90 percent in the two rounds center-right paint a significantly of the 2017 presidential elections), more mixed picture: the decline of Hungary (where Jobbik scored 19 Silvio Berlusconi’s party in Italy and percent in 2018), Germany (where the Republicans in France has been the Alternative for Germany nearly matched by a growing share of the trebled its vote to 12.6 percent), and vote for the Austrian People’s Party more recently Italy (where the Lega’s (from 24.5 percent to 31.7 percent), share of the vote climbed to 17.37 the Law and Justice Party in Poland percent, in addition to the anti-estab- (up 7.69 percent to 37.58 percent), lishment Five-Star Movement’s 32.66 and even more impressively the Hun- percent). In hindsight, the respite in garian ruling Fidesz (49.5 percent in right wing ascension signaled by the 2018, up 4.40 percent). victory of the centrist, pro-EU Em- manuel Macron in France12 and the collapse of electoral support for the The Ideological Porosity between right wing UKIP (from 12.8 percent Radical and Mainstream Right in 2015 to 1.8 percent)13 proved tem- porary and not enough to change It is far from a coincidence that the the dynamics of the overall trend of nominally center-right parties that populist parties of the right making bucked the trend of mainstream elec- significant inroads at the expense of toral retrenchment have benefited traditional mainstream parties of the from a hardening of their ideologi- previously dominant liberal, global- cal platform towards immigration, ist, and pro-EU consensus. Islam, globalization, and European integration.15 The case of Hungary is What is particularly striking is the the most instructive in this respect. disproportionate impact of this up- In the midst of the 2015 refugee cri- ward trend for the radical right on sis, the Hungarian government de- the traditional mainstream political cided to erect a long ‘border barrier’ parties. In the last decade, there has along the country’s frontier with Ser- been a dramatic collapse of support bia and Croatia. While the barrier for the center-left in many European proved effective in halting the refu- countries.
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