Europe’s left parties in distress over boom in populism
Backlash against decades of globalisation and liberal immigration policies seen as spreading across the continent and fuelling a far-right ‘revolution’
The online denunciations pile up daily: Muslims can’t be trusted. Neither can the mainstream media. The elites have run amok. Institutions are out of touch with the will of the people.
It might sound a lot like Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. But this time, the balloting is in Austria, the latest testing ground for European far-right populist movements energised by Britain’s June vote to exit the European Union and Trump’s election victory.
The rise of populism – characterised by nationalism and anti-globalisation – has been building across Europe for years.
But this has been the year that European populist movements burst into full view and united by a broad sense of grievance against the political establishment.
Elections set to take place next year in Germany and France, continental Europe’s main political and economic powers, are being closely watched. So too is next year’s balloting in the Netherlands, a one-time liberal bastion that could be poised to make a sharp right turn.
On the immediate horizon, contests that might otherwise have garnered relatively little attention – Austria’s presidential vote and a constitutional referendum in Italy – are seen as indicators of whether the populist wave has peaked or is poised to gather more momentum.
Trump’s triumph could be as much a sign that European movements leapt across the Atlantic as the other way around, some analysts maintain. Trump cheered the “Brexit” result.
European far-right leaders rejoiced at the US election result. Marine Le Pen said Trump “made possible what was presented as completely impossible”.
Many of the populist figures embracing Trump consider his win not only a vindication of their more incendiary political views, but a sign of kinship born of self-proclaimed outsider status.
Hungary’s staunchly anti-immigration Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who swept to power in 2010, has been held at arm’s length by Washington and European leaders over actions widely perceived as anti-democratic. That ostracism, the Hungarian leader crowed, will change.
“Our position has improved remarkably,” the prime minister told the Hungarian business daily World Economy after speaking with the US president-elect on the phone. “He invited me to Washington; I told him I hadn’t been there for a long time as I had been treated as a black sheep.”
To which, he said, Trump laughed and replied: “Me, too.”
The presidential race in Austria has been tempestuous, pitting far-right parliamentarian Norbert Hofer against leftist Alexander Van der Bellen. The electoral battle has dragged on for over a year as an earlier result was contested.
In its latest incarnation, there has also been heavy traffic to a far-right news website – Unzensuriert (Uncensored) – with a preoccupation with the influx of refugees over the past two years.
Anti-EU sentiment is a crucial engine in some of the most highly fraught contests, and the alarm of the bloc’s leaders has only grown since Britain’s decision to leave. Most of them see a potent new threat in Italy’s national referendum, with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi saying he will step down if a package of constitutional reforms is voted down. That could open the door to political opponents who want to break with the EU.
Scorched-earth tactics have been a boon for politicians like Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders, once considered far outside the mainstream but winning supporters with calls for the closing of Islamic schools and creation of a religious registry.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has seen her immense popularity dented over the last two years due to her decision to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees. She said she will seek a fourth term, but even members of her own party are telling her not to bother.
