The longstanding effort to keep extremist forces out of government in Europe is officially over.

For decades, political parties of all kinds joined forces to keep the hard-right far from the levers of power. Today, this strategy — known in France as a cordon sanitaire(or firewall) — is falling apart, as populist and nationalist parties grow in strength across the Continent.

Six EU countries — Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic — have hard-right parties in government. In Sweden, the survival of the executive relies on a confidence and supply agreement with the nationalist Sweden Democrats, the second-largest force in parliament. In the Netherlands, the anti-Islamic firebrand Geert Wilders is on the verge of power, having sealed a historic dealto form the most right-wing government in recent Dutch history.

Meanwhile, hard-right parties are dominating the polls across much of Europe. In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is cruising at over 30 percent, far ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. Across the Rhine, Alternative for Germany, a party under police surveillance for its extremist views, is polling second, head-to-head with the Social Democrats.

    • mister_monster@monero.town
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      Well, they win because they get votes, what is it that they’re unhappy with that they’re drawn to the potential leadership of these parties? I’d start with that. These are democracies, so these parties can’t gain power unless they offer the citizenry of their countries something they want.

        • mister_monster@monero.town
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          How so? The parties they’re competing against are incumbents, and often, there are laws preventing them from campaigning. If anything they’re at a disadvantage policitally, and yet they’re winning. Obviously, what they’re offering is popular for some reason.

          • targetx@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            5 months ago

            In my opinion these parties are often mentioning valid issues or things that could be improved in society, and people vote for that. The problem is these parties don’t really have solutions either, but that’s something that doesn’t show up until after the elections…

            • Shardikprime@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              5 months ago

              I think people have been waiting for solutions and they are reacting to those not being offered now, not in a potential future

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Here is the actual answer:

      Make housing affordable.

      Ban housing as an investment and build far more social housing.

      As long as countries succumb to the investors and make housing an investment this will only get worse.

      The most important thing is to make sure the peoples basic needs are provided. If they do not have food, electricity, housing etc, they will get big mad at whomever is in charge right now.

      • bassad@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        Unfortunately that won’t solve the problem, I see some people that have already everything, but they are just afraid of others, don’t want to change their habits and don’t want to share.

        I guess the only way to change this mind is to talk, exchange, mix, share

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          Most right winger groups grow big by blaming <problem> on immigrants.

          In the case of the rising immigration hate, it’s the people blaming the housing prices on immigrants instead of cheap loans for investment bankers to snatch up all the properties with.