Far-right forces are expanding their influence throughout the region and finding several allies in traditional right-wing centrist parties.
The specter of brutal policies has returned once again to Europe. However, this time it is neither communism nor the bloody red revolution; It is the pernicious far-right forces that are expanding their influence throughout the region.
Unfortunately, they have found several allies in traditional right-wing centrist parties who previously avoided any meaningful interaction with them for fear of losing support.
The alleged appeasement of these far-right forces by some European politicians, including Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, has dismayed many analysts who consider it a gross capitulation. Leyen, unlike consensus-seeking former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is believed to be unafraid to divide opinion to push policies she believes are right.
But many question his rubbing shoulders with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose party is considered a successor to the Italian fascists by Meloni's critics. Although Meloni, who heads the Brothers of Italy, has claimed in the past that there are “no fascists, racists or nostalgic anti-Semites in her party,” critics do not believe her claim. They affirm that the party has several leaders whose past cannot be described as impeccable.
According to British socialist activist Simon Basketter, the party was co-founded by Ignazio Benito La Russa with Meloni. Many know Russa as a former defense minister, who also became president of the upper house of the Italian parliament in 2022. But what they don't know are his family's connections to Italian fascists. His father was secretary of Mussolini's fascist party, while Russa himself began his political career in the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the party created in 1946 by Mussolini supporters.
Basketter points out that the Italian constitution of 1948 explicitly prohibited the reorganization “in any form, of the dissolved fascist party.” Perhaps this was why the MSI was excluded from government coalitions. However, it reappeared in different ways.
Basketter exposes such connections in one of his articles published in “Socialist Worker” in 2002. He reveals: “In a video showing his (Russa's) many fascist relics displayed in his home, he gloated: “There is even a communist symbol, but “We put it under the feet of the statue of Mussolini.”
In addition to Russa, his brother is also accused of having fascist connections. Basketter says La Russa's brother Romano, a Brothers of Italy councillor, was filmed in 2022 doing the stiff-armed fascist salute at a funeral. However, the party clarified that it had nothing to do with any fascist ideology or inclination.
Given this history of the party, many are dismayed by the attempts by Úrsula, who is seeking a second term as president of the European Commission, which aim to gain Meloni's support. The head of the commission has been accused of visiting Italy frequently to curry favor with the head of the Brotherhood. Many of Ursula's critics believe that she amounts to appeasing forces that have traces of fascist ideology and espouse polarized political opinions.
Many believe that this rubbing shoulders of Ursula and other conservative leaders with far-right European politicians ahead of June's EU parliamentary elections, when around 450 million eligible voters in 27 countries elect a new EU parliament, could give them a minimum of respectability and legitimize their polarization. diary.
It is said that these far-right parties should be considered democratic, but given the scale of destruction that Europe faced during World War II, any views that drive a wedge between communities and people must be addressed effectively. No party should be allowed to spread hate speech under the pretext of immigration, identity or Western civilization. These parties should not be considered democrats at all.
Italy witnessed the rise of the Brotherhood because the leaders of the main parties legitimized the crimes of the fascists in one way or another, helping far-right forces to infiltrate mainstream politics. The center-right Italian governments between 1994 and 2011 are believed to have opened the door to these politically extremist forces whose ideas resemble those of fascists.
For example, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is accused of launching a revisionist view of Mussolini's role in Italian history. He declared Mussolini one of Italy's “greatest statesmen” and a “benign dictator” who had “done good things for Italy.”
It is not only Italy where traditional leaders have capitulated to rising far-right forces, but other European politicians have also adopted a range of policies to appease such forces. Many critics believe that a series of restrictions on immigration and Muslims have been imposed to calm these elements. But it seems that their demands are increasing.
Perhaps this is why the popularity of these regressive elements increases with each passing day.
According to various polls, the European People's Party (EPP) will probably get 173 seats, the Socialists and Democrats 146 and the Identity and Democracy group, made up of far-right forces, 84. The Greens and their allies will probably get 43, while the left The wing parties and their allies could win 31 seats.
Many parties are making it clear that they will not work with far-right forces in the next European Parliament. For example, the Party of European Socialists recently declared that it would not work with far-right forces in the next European parliament.
But not all conservative parties have made the same political statement. That is why they are accused of opening the door to some extreme right-wing parties.
It is important to understand that there is a blurred line between conservatives, far-right groups, and extremist forces.
It is often seen that when hardline ultranationalist parties do not find support among the people, they present a moderate form of their ideology in an attempt to make people believe that they have abandoned their regressive ideas.
For example, when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) failed to find support among Indians, it introduced a moderate version of its ideology in the form of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is now wreaking havoc on the lives of minorities and Indians. . poor.
Several conservative leaders would waste no time in joining European far-right forces or possibly extremist parties the moment they realized that such parties were in a position to win elections.
This happened in the past, when several conservative leaders turned a blind eye to the brutal activities of Hitler and Mussolini, who ruthlessly crushed all opposition.
The silence of European leaders in the face of such activities emboldens such monstrous political figures to plunge the world into terrible catastrophes like the one that claimed more than 70 million lives, including six million hapless Jews.
Extremist ideologies like fascism were one of the factors that pushed the world towards this. Europe paid a high price for tolerating such an ideology. The development and progress that humanity had achieved in the last 500 years evaporated during the terrible carnage of the 20th century.
Therefore, it is important that all anti-fascist forces not only vehemently oppose the remnants of Hitler and Mussolini but also distance themselves from the far-right forces that are being accused of following at least some points of these destructive ideologies.
Aligning yourself with these forces, especially in the midst of any economic crisis, could be very explosive because that is when these forces may try to find a scapegoat for the people's financial problems and exploit their feelings. European parties must make strenuous efforts to prevent these far-right forces from plunging the continent into another bloodbath.
The writer is a freelance journalist who can be contacted at: [email protected]
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Geo.tv.
Originally published in The News
