Far-right in Europe now a phenomenon the mainstream cannot ignore

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Hello from aboard a long train trip in France, as I make my way back to London from Strasbourg.

Another week in Europe and another stunning victory for populist, hard-right parties.

This time Austria’s Freedom Party (FPO), led by the Russia-friendly, eurosceptic Herbert Kickl, won 29 per cent of the vote after a campaign that was more extreme than any other recent election in Europe.

Herbert Kickl, leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, led the popular vote in recent elections on the back of an extreme anti-immigration campaign. Credit: AP

Perhaps it’s because the world doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with a hugely consequential election in the United States, or an expanding regional war in the Middle East at the same time, but the more muted response might just reflect the extent to which the hard-right has normalised itself this year – from the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) to Geert Wilders in the Netherlands to Marine Le Pen in France.

Kickl’s views are far more extremist than those of your average far-right party. He stated throughout his campaign that his intention was to turn his small nation of 9 million into a “fortress” where “the right to asylum will be stopped”.

He wants to be able to withdraw the citizenship of refugees who fail to integrate, and to introduce an emergency law that suspends the right to asylum, which would constitute a violation of the Geneva Conventions Act.

Pressed to clarify his intentions, Kickl mentioned the idea of revoking nationality from any naturalised citizen “who attacks our values”, but some of his party’s candidates went so far as to mention “remigration” (meaning the return to their country of origin) of “schoolchildren who disrespect” their teachers, or even simple “riff-raff”.

His party’s election posters described him as “Volkskanzler” or “people’s chancellor”, a term most commonly associated with the Nazis who used it to describe Adolf Hitler. Kickl wants to abolish laws that penalise right-wing hate speech, exert control over what teachers say in class, and add a clause to the Constitution to say Austria must protect itself against the European Union, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Readers in Australia might look at all this aghast, but this latest election result is simply a continuation of a greater trend across mainland Europe, where rising discontent over immigration and a stagnating economy have broadened the appeal of parties on the hard left and right of politics.

It has become a phenomenon the mainstream can no longer ignore.

Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally, is riding a wave of far-right sentiment sweeping Europe. Credit: AP

In recent decades, Austria has become a much more multicultural country, but this is leading to major societal tensions. Anti-Muslim sentiment is high, with more than a third of voters (38 per cent) saying they would feel uncomfortable about their child having a romantic relationship with a Muslim person.

Throughout Europe net immigration in the past two years has surpassed levels reached even during the mass inflow of refugees from Syria and elsewhere in 2015-16 – though many this time round are refugees from Ukraine.

While for years Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z have blamed societal problems on the Baby Boomers generation, polling in the final days before the Austrian election from the Foresight research group showed 27 per cent of voters under 30 opting for the FPO, compared with 20 per cent for the long-ruling conservative People’s Party (OVP), and up from 20 per cent at the previous election in 2019.

Among middle-aged voters, the FPO captured 37 per cent, almost double that of the OVP and more than double the 16 per cent taken by the far right at the polls five years ago.

This is also a pattern. Support for far-right figures among young voters is on the up in several European countries.

Le Pen and Jordan Bardella (in suit), the president of the National Rally, have attracted the support of younger voters with no memory of World War II.Credit: Bloomberg

Ben Ansell, a professor at the University of Oxford and host of the podcast What’s Wrong with Democracy?, points out that in Germany last month, where the AfD secured a resounding victory in the Thuringia state election, almost 40 per cent of 18-to-29-year-olds voted for the AfD. In contrast, only one in five voters over 70 chose the AfD.

In June’s European Union elections, France’s far-right National Rally was the most popular party among 18-to-34-year-olds, with 32 per cent of the vote – much higher than that for over-65s.

Young people in France are being drawn to candidates such as 29-year-old Jordan Bardella.Credit: AP

Despite being less likely to vote than the rest of the population, young people are nonetheless being drawn towards non-mainstream alternatives – especially when these are represented by young people like them, such as 29-year-old Jordan Bardella in France.

“Some people have argued that it’s [due to] concerns about the war in Ukraine,” Ansell says. “Other people have argued that it’s a response to COVID, or a response to the housing crisis … it’s getting on the housing ladder and things like that, having the same quality of life they thought their elders had.”

While Kickl’s radicalism might have won him the election, it is also the reason why he is unlikely to become chancellor.

Just like in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom also came first, his rivals have labelled him a “threat to democracy” and vowed to never allow him to lead a government.

Either way, Kickl’s brand of politics is not new, nor is it isolated. It’s part of a new trend the mainstream ignores at its peril.

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