Right-wing Populism On Rise

In the book ‘The Strange Death of Europe’, Douglas Murray writes “Europe is committing suicide.” By this he means the civilization as Europe is being understood worldwide is eroding. The liberal values with which Europe is best known are under assault. Rightist populism is making greater inroad in global politics. In other words fascism is slowly but steadily making a comeback in a new avatar either in the form of right-wing populism or left-wing extremism. Europe seems to be returning to pre-World War II conservative era. 

Europe is just a symptom but the trend is global. Factors contributing to the rightist populism are multiple. Immigration, inflation, rising cost of life, unemployment and economic downturn are said to be the key culprits creating fear in the mind of Europeans —the fear to lose their identity owing to mass inflow of immigrants to Europe from Asia and Africa. This gave rise to public disenchantment while right-wing parties and politicians have added fuel to the fire. The native voters in Europe could easily allured by anti-immigrant slogans of the right-wingers. 

Demographic challenge

Europe is facing demographic challenge as working age population is declining. Birth rate is going down and aging population is rising in all over Western Europe. European governments are forced to fill this void by bringing immigrants from other Asia and Africa. This is not a choice but a compulsion for governments as they are required to keep economy afloat. However, this has stirred political backlash which was reflected in the national elections in several countries like Sweden, Italy, Finland and France. As a result, rightist parties have made foray into Netherland, Hungary, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Germany.  The 2024 election for European Union parliament is the recent manifestation, in which anti-immigration rightist parties have emerged with significant number to influence in the decision-making of the European Union. 

European Union is generally known as successful model of regional integration. At a time when several other regional groups have either succumbed to divergent interests of the member countries and its resultant conflicts or turned non-functional, EU is a successful case. Even larger group like non-aligned movement or NAM remained only in name. The Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) is also almost non-functional in recent years. ASEAN was viewed as a group created to contain expansion of Soviet influence in South East Asia. Once Soviet Union collapsed ASEAN was no longer needed. Similarly, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC is in moribund state with a little prospect of its revival. The SAARC suffered entirely owing to animosity and conflict between India and Pakistan. 

Right from the establishment in 1985, the prospect of the SAARC was in question. In principle, the creation of SAARC was to expedite and deepen regional cooperation among South Asian countries. Right from the beginning, India had taken the SAARC as a ganging up of South Asian countries against New Delhi. Thus, India, was suspicious and sceptic of the SAARC. India is the largest country in size, economy and military might in South Asia. Two of the seven original member countries (Nepal and Bhutan) are landlocked but in practical sense India locked. India "guides" Bhutan’s foreign policy and based on bilateral treaty Thimpu is required to consult New Delhi on its foreign and defense affairs. 

India often describes its relations with Bhutan as the model for relations with other South Asian countries. Nepal is always careful not to make any mistake to fall into Bhutan-like situation. Pakistan is India’s rival right from the birth of these two nations (India and Pakistan) in 1947.  Bangladesh is even newer country which was born in 1971. Despite India’s key role in the creation of Bangladesh as a nation, Dhaka, too, is asserting its independent foreign policy. Sri Lanka-India relations have seen occasional ups and down while the Maldives case is also similar. Afghanistan is a newest entrant, which was not on board when SAARC was founded. SAARC fell into these complication and could not steer ahead.

There was a period when regional integration was a major phenomenon and several regional groups emerged in different parts of the world. Now is the phenomenon of de-regionalisation but globalization. So regional groups are less effective and less functional. EU, too, is likely to suffer from this syndrome.  The 21st century is said to be the era of liberal democracy with greater connectivity and cooperation among nations and people across the world. However, the recent global trends point otherwise. The heart of liberal values, democracy, industrialisation, renaissance, freedom and fraternity is Europe but these values are under assault. Rightist populism and extremism is on the rise in the heart of these value.

Brexit symptom  

As the foundation upon which EU was built has started to crumble, the very existence and relevance of EU are under threat. Brexit has already sown the seed, while far-right elements all over Europe are watering the seedlings and are trying to harvest the crop. The Brexit was, therefore, a symptom and the disease is now deepening in the entire body politics of Europe. Some Europeans have even called the EU itself as a problem that has contributed to the rise of rightist menace. 

Rightist populism in Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy triggered World War II. These evil powers were defeated and the liberal values were restored in Europe after World War II. But rightists are once again raising their head in recent years posing threat to liberal values and causing alarm worldwide. Both rightist and leftist populism and extremism are bad that polarise the society and trigger conflict in the name of ideology, class, ethnicity and identity. This trend is likely to create a breeding ground for ethnic violence and conflict among different ethnic, lingual and religious communities. Thus, the world in general and Europe in particular appears to be sitting on the dormant volcano likely to erupt at any time.  

(The author is former editor of TRN and former ambassador to Denmark.)