Despite Setback, the Right Still Rises in the West

A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of populist conservatism that can respond to the dangers facing the continent.

Right-wing, national-conservative parties are seeing stunning success and growth as Europeans become disillusioned with the politically correct, globalization-backing, pro-immigration and pro-EU European Establishment.

The Front National in France, led by Marine Le Pen, dominated the first round of voting in the country’s Dec. 6 regional elections, polling first in six of 13 regions and taking 27.96 percent of the vote. The party has seen its popularity skyrocket in the past few years, but during a second round Sunday it failed to win any region as moderate, and Leftist voters banded together against it.

But even in defeat, the National Front shook the establishment to its core. Socialists and moderates were forced to band together to defeat Le Pen — with some Socialists voting for the center-right Les Republicans, the party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, just to keep the National Front out of power. The presidency may still be in Le Pen’s future.

For decades, the centrist elite in Europe have disregarded the national sovereignty, cultural heritage and social stability of European nations. Many in Europe have simply had enough.

“Uncontrolled immigration and the national identity crisis that multiculturalism has presented is a symptom of centrist politics, which is the true root of the recent sharp shifts in the political landscape,” said Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Bow Group, the UK’s oldest conservative think tank.

The Establishment’s “approach to politics favors short-term expediency over long-term solutions, (creating) a build-up of problems for the West that will now require deeply uncomfortable, difficult solutions to solve … solutions now being presented by new or resurgent parties” on the right, Harris-Quinney said.

The rise of businessman Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the U.S. is also a reaction to business-as-usual Establishment politics, echoing what has been going on in Europe for several years. It has become increasingly obvious to voters on both sides of the Atlantic that whatever interests their politicians may have, serving their voters is not one of them.

In October, Switzerland’s Swiss People’s Party swept the federal elections, gaining 29.4 percent of the vote and winning 65 seats in the National Council. Also in October, the Polish national-conservative Law and Justice Party won 37.6 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections, destroying the center-right Civic Platform party. Law and Justice now has 235 of 400 seats in the Sejm — Poland’s lower house — and 55 of 100 seats in the Senate.

In Hungary, the government is dominated by the national-conservative Fidesz Party, which has a majority of seats in the National Assembly, county assemblies, and the European Parliament. The leader of the party and prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has spoken out repeatedly against multiculturalism, mass immigration, and the predatory behavior of the global financial elite. Unlike his centrist counterpart in Germany, Orbán responded to the Syrian migrant crisis by building a big, beautiful wall.

The Swedish and British right-wing populist parties, Sweden Democrats (SD) and UKIP, respectively, have also seen increased electoral success of late. In the 2014 Swedish election, the SD doubled its support, gaining 12.9 percent of the vote and becoming the third-largest party in government. The party topped multiple opinion polls over the summer, the first time in a century a party other than the Social Democrats or Moderates had done so.

Mainstream media organizations that are often little more than Establishment propaganda bureaus are scrambling to paint this reinvigorated conservatism in as negative a light as possible.

UKIP in Britain has made steady gains since 2013, and in the 2015 general election took the third largest vote share of any party, knocking the long-time third-place Liberal Democrats into electoral oblivion.

Establishment politicians and journalists claim these recent developments are a reaction to the Syrian migrant crisis. While the crisis has certainly helped fuel the rise of the Right, the implication that it is solely a reaction to the migrant crisis is belied by the facts. Many of the parties began their gains well before Syrians started arriving.

Predictably, mainstream media organizations that are often little more than Establishment propaganda bureaus are scrambling to paint this reinvigorated conservatism in as negative a light as possible. References to the “far-right” abound, as do hysterical warnings about “extremism.” Time Magazine calls the rise “worrying,” and this week’s Economist cover story on this rise of the Right carries the not-so-subtle title of “Playing with fear.” It warns hysterically that “the threat is real.”

While these parties and politicians are certainly a threat to a global elite that for decades has forced economic globalization and multiculturalism down the throats of Europeans, the parties are far from a threat to the people. In fact, they may be their last, best hope.