The far right is gaining ground in Europe, but will it be able to upset the balance during the European elections? Report from Germany and Portugal, in this issue of Witness.
The far right is growing throughout Europe and has all the cards in hand to upset the political balance during the next European elections. For what ? Who votes for her? What could be the impact? Journalist Monica Pinna traveled to Germany and Portugal to discover the faces and programs of the AfD and Chega. Two parties, two countries, but one objective: to change Europe from the inside.
Populist rhetoric could achieve some success during the European elections. Polls suggest that far-right and ultra-conservative parties could become the third force in the next European Parliament.
Germany must elect the highest number of MEPs, compared to other member states, at 96. The German far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party is aiming to elect 20 MEPs. Will they succeed? The AfD remains well placed in opinion polls, despite several scandals involving its members. The party was recently expelled from the far-right Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament after its main candidate told an Italian newspaper that not all the SS had been criminals. Maximilian Krah remains the AfD’s main candidate for the European elections. And this is the type of Europe the AfD wants.
“We need more power for nation states,” explains Maximilian Krah, “we need less skills in Brussels and more competitiveness. But there needs to be a common approach to trade agreements, customs and foreign policy guidelines.”
In the eastern state of Thuringia, the AfD is likely to become the main political force in the new state parliament, although it is under scrutiny due to its links to neo-state Nazis. Björn Höcke, leader of the AfD in Thuringia and main candidate in the national elections, was recently fined for deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan during a campaign speech. Five years ago, another court ruled that he could rightly be called a “fascist.”
According to experts from the “Thuringia Project”, democracy is under pressure across Europe, as authoritarian populists are trying to change the rules of democracy from within:
“At the state level of Thuringia, an AfD minister-president could abolish public service broadcasting with a simple signature. It could influence cultural policy in schools and set different priorities. These are formally legal options, but they harm our entire democracy,” says Friedrich Zillessen, editor-in-chief of the Constitution Blog and the Thuringia Project.
Monica Pinna then went to Portugal, where a protest vote propelled a radical right group to the forefront. In March’s general elections, the far-right Chega party won 50 seats in parliament.
It became the third political force in Portugal. The shadow of this result hung over the march organized in Lisbon for the 50th anniversary of the end of the nationalist dictatorship of Salazar.
Monica Pinna met André Ventura, founder and director of Chega, the same day at Parliament. He presented himself as an anti-system politician aiming to reform justice, the economic system and the political system. He criticized current Portuguese democracy.
“We have never been, in fact, a super democratic country. Chega was the first party, in the entire history of democracy, to succeed in breaking the two-party system,” declared André Ventura.
André Ventura has fon dé Chega, which means “Enough!” », in 2019. In just five years, his party went from 1.3% to 18% of the vote in general elections. The leader of the center-right coalition, which won this year’s elections, has refused to ally himself with Chega, but the party’s populist allies in the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy group are enthusiastic.
“The best way to defend Europe is not to dismantle the European Union, but we cannot let the EU destroy the identity of all countries and define things like immigration, our tax policy, our economic policy. What we can eat, or not.”
Despite the divisions, the European far right seems to be starting to take root. The question then arises: will the radical parties obtain a sufficiently high score in the next European elections to influence policies and the development of laws? One thing is certain, the June election will serve as a test for liberal democracy, and Europe as we know it.