By J.M. Thorn

One of the most significant political developments in Europe in recent years has been the rise of right-wing populism. In almost all European states there have electoral advances for far right parties. The most high profile of these has been the success of the National Front’s Jean Marie LePen in reaching the second round of the Presidential election in France. This was followed shortly afterward by the strong showing of the Pim Fortuyn List party in the Dutch general election. Following on from their electoral successes some of these far-right parties, such as the National Alliance in Italy and the Freedom Party in Austria, have become part of coalition governments. Over a period of three years the European Union has gone from having ten social democratic governments to only two. If you discount Tony Blair’s Labour Party, this leaves just one, the SDP government in Germany.

So what has happened? Why have social democratic governments failed so miserably and why has there been a rise in support for the far-right? The answers to these questions are inevitably bound up together. For it was the record of social democracy in government that, to a large degree, prepared the way for the rise of the far right. Although elected on the back of opposition to attacks on people’s living standards, when in power they pursued the same neo-liberal policies as their conservative predecessors. Indeed, in many cases, social democratic governments pushed that agenda, of cuts in public services, privatisation, and labour flexibility, even further. You therefore had the situation of social democratic governments implementing a programme that they had been elected to oppose or at least mitigate. Their defenders pointed to evidence of economic growth as measure of success. Yet in reality the fruits of this economic growth benefited only a small minority. For it was based primarily on a movement of wealth from labour to capital. Inequality and poverty increased dramatically and the quality of many people’s lives deteriorated as they were forced to work harder and harder just to stand still.

It is the impact of neo-liberal polices, and the sense of bitterness and betrayal at the governments that are implementing them, that has provided the opening for far-right parties. They are able to feed on these grievances and push them in a reactionary direction. They are also able to strike populist poses by denouncing the prices of globalisation and European integration. However, the target of their rhetoric is not capitalism but its most oppressed victims. What unites all these right-wing populist parties is an anti-immigrant platform. In this schema, all the problems of society are blamed on immigration. If you can’t get hospital treatment its not because services have been privatised but because immigrants are taking away resources, if your pay has been frozen its not because the company is increasing its profits but because immigrant labour is depressing wages, and if crime is increasing its not because amenities have been closed and civic society dismantled but because of immigration. Many of the populists "solutions" to these problems centre on the concept of a strong national state, for "law and order", control over borders, and for blatant discrimination against those who are deemed to be non-nationals.

What this new right wing populism represents is a nationalistic response to globalisation. In many ways it the other side of the "anti-capitalist" movement that has emerged in recent years. The rise of this new populism shows that the issues raised by globalisation can be as easily exploited by the right as the left. It is an indication of the political weakness of "anti-capitalism" that its slogans and demands can be appropriated for a right wing agenda. If the anti-capitalist movement is to develop it urgently needs to deepen its understanding of globalisation and how it can be challenged, and change from its current populist character to become a movement that is unequivocally on the left.

So how big a threat is right-wing populism? While the rise of far right parties should not be dismissed, it would be wrong to describe them as fascist. Although these parties may have fascists within them, they are not fascist parties. For the essential element of fascism is not its ideology but its organisation. It is a mass movement of the middle class whose objective is to destroy the political organisations of the working class. In the 1920’s and 30’s Mussolini and Hitler had hundreds of thousands of men under their command who could be deployed to take control of the streets. None of the right-wing populist parties possess this capacity. They may have electoral support but none are mass movements. Another problem for these parties is that their programme is at odds with the development of European capitalism. It is capitalism that is the main driving force behind globalisation and European integration. The growth of the European economy also is dependent on immigrant labour. Given the continent’s ageing population and shrinking workforce, there will be an increasing need for immigration in the future. As these right wing populist parties are not opposed to capitalism they are likely to accommodate to its demands. Their populist appeal will soon fade when they enter government and are implementing the very policies that they were denouncing in opposition. Their nationalistic politics will offer no challenge to globalisation.

The most important thing is that there is an opposition to these right wing parties. In the wake of the Le Pen’s success in France, hundreds of thousands of people, particularly the youth, mobilised in the streets to protest against the National Front. Also, in the first round of the presidential election far left candidates won 10 per cent of the vote. This shows that politics is not solely moving to the right. The untold story is that many people are also looking to the left as an alternative. In the longer term this made be the more significant development for it is only international socialism that can offer a credible alternative to capitalism.