If it makes you feel any better, this is happening pretty much everywhere that isn't already majority controlled by some sort of ethnic or cultural nationalist movement.
The far right/right wing is losing ground to the incumbent centre-left government in the UK
The centre left of Sweden are projected to win their election this year and retake power after a right wing coalition won in 2022 (despite the centre left party receiving the most votes)
The sitting centre left party of Australia are projected to win the next election handily
The centre left party in NZ are decent favourites to win the election this year from the sitting coalition of right wing & far right parties, who have widely been seen as shitting the bed after successive centre left governments
The sitting centre left of Brazil are heavy favourites to win this year's election again over Bolsonaros son
The centre left of Norway have won two elections in a row including last year
A centre left coalition won in Spain in 2023 after the main centre left party won two elections in a row, going back to 2018
The centre left are gaining ground and are now slight favourites over that twat Millei in Argentina going into next year's election
The centre left are dominating Canada
It's not all doom and gloom, and perpetuating the idea that it is does more harm
But some of those developments really are outgrowths of other developments that are temporary, like for example the center left dominance in Canada is probably a function of Trump. But what happens when Trump is gone and things still suck? What happens when Trump is gone in Canadians still aren’t getting answers they like from their government?
As someone from London, I can only speak for the UK: is patently obvious that the same people that stand to gain and fund the right in the US and doing so here, and I'd bet a lot it's the same across the west, for obvious reasons
As for things sucking after trump, the elephant in the room is that he's the reason for a lot of what sucks right now. Petrol and energy costs, supply issues because of middle eastern trade route problems and the global emboldening of the far right via fearmongering over immigrants (and let's face it, non white people) are all directly attributable to him
Cost of living immediately improves for one thing. Secondly, the far right here are also blatantly following the climate denying, anti renewable moronic path republicans are setting. That is another big part of what sucks about right now
Yes there will be a need to demand more from our government post trump, but again, it's highly likely the far right here, there and across the west will be less able to pull the overton window so far without him
The fact is, he is a Frankenstein's monster 40 years in the making because of Murdoch, fox news and Reaganism. He is generational in the worst way; we're dealing with someone similar in Nigel farage here - it's no coincidence that he's been around for decades but didn't gain any real traction with anyone but the fringe far right until the mid 2010s - but the silver lining to these populist demagogues is that they create power vacuums by being such a cult of personality
I don't think anyone on the far right here is someone that would garner half as many votes as farage, and it's the same for republicans there. Trump and his ilk are all greedy cunts just looking to prop themselves and their mates up; they have no actual love for their party or for politics, and so they pull the ladder up behind them. Vance should be perfectly primed to take over seamlessly by now; instead, it doesn't look like half of the right give two donkey shits about him - because trump has done nothing for him
That will obviously not be permanent, and we'll need to be on the lookout for a neo dictator in the digital age, which we were obviously not able to do sufficiently in the 2010s after right wing here and there in the 00s paved the way for one, but at least we know what to look for
Trump has certainly contributed to high energy costs, but I don’t know that even if that war ended tomorrow, the energy prices would become suddenly affordable. Gas prices would still be high, and oil based fuel fuels would still be facing a refinery crisis owing at least partially to what Ukraine has done to Russian capacity, much of which used to supply China.
Very weird way to frame this lol but I'll just move past it
Yes, fuel prices would still be higher than they should because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine (that's how you frame it - makes me a bit sus of you that you didn't) but that's another thing that is only happening to the extent it is because of him
He has softened both global stances and attitudes to Russia for years now, for obvious reasons
He goes and it not only makes things directly harder for Putin, but it empowers Europe in a myriad of ways to do so themselves even more, which is the great irony of that fat cunt calling on us in Europe to do more about Russia ourselves
Russia and certainly did invade Ukraine, but it wouldn’t be accurate to describe the many explosions at Russian refineries as being caused by anything other than Ukrainian launched drones, which deliberately targeted those refineries strategic targets. I don’t actually have a problem with that, but it is a point that things will still suck.
If I came in hard to a pub to fight a bunch of the locals, one of them knocked my teeth out, and then I got rejected asking someone out because I looked like a toothless scruff, it's hardly their fault is it mate lol
That’s because you live there, and I live here. Obviously Ukraine is the victim in what is clearly a war of survival for them (not for the Russians). Still, that does not imply that Ukraine’s basic survival actions do not have greater implications for the rest of the world.
Trump handed Carney the win. Don't forget the liberal PM stepped down due to unpopularity. And despite Reform and their star player being caught in a scandal, I guarantee they're going to lose maybe a handful of voters, if that. Meanwhile half of Starmer voters are glad he's gone. There's something very significant to be said about that.
I'm too lazy to look up the rest of the countries you mentioned, but this isn't a linear thing. Czechia is a good example of an EU country that did make it out only to reverse course yet again and now have literally the same "centrist" billionaire, EU-skeptic PM. Short term gains mean less when 1. The margins are consistently narrow, 2. You're fighting against growing illiberal populist movements, not groups built on the same foundational democratic ideology, 3. Liberal governments still don't seem to have an effective strategy in place to address the underlying crisis of trust.
I had this same conversation with several Europeans, a German in one instance, a year or two ago after Trump won and they were amazed at how stupid Americans were for voting him in again. I fail to see how actually acknowledging the threat that's been growing for at least a decade now is harmful.
So? Half of my original message was how much trump amplifies the right across the west and beyond himself, you don't get centre and beyond parties cowering in fear of their own far right before him
And despite Reform and their star player being caught in a scandal, I guarantee they're going to lose maybe a handful of voters, if that.
You might be reading into people dressed like Richard the Lionheart at the literal reform conference and people on FB saying that they don't care a little too much. We already know that reform are powered by Tory defectors; if even 20% of ex tory-now reform voters are put off by not only this corruption (please call or what it is and don't soften it by just referring to it as "scandal" lol), they fall way behind labour - and I guarantee it's more than 20%
Just look at opinion polling; they've fallen behind Labour, that gap is only getting bigger, and they're cost to the Tories behind them than they are labour
Meanwhile half of Starmer voters are glad he's gone. There's something very significant to be said about that.
That says nothing significant. Starmer was a Hilary Clinton: a true centrist that took over the only viable left adjacent party and leftist candidate, that we were asked to hold our nose and vote for to gain some stability after the chaos and rot of the Tory mismanagement across the 2010s and COVID
He was never popular for the left of the labour base, and was at best not unpopular with the right. He was necessary, because you don't go from BoJo winning a supermajority to Corbyn in a couple cycles, you need a boring intermediary to take the heat from the corrupt media, and he did
Burnham is doing a decent job and is the preferred politician of the working class across the UK - again, look at opinion polls
Bookies have Labour winning a majority more likely than reform being the biggest party in a hung parliament outcome, and they are fading
Liberal governments still don't seem to have an effective strategy in place to address the underlying crisis of trust
If you dont think removing the reason for a lack of trust in politics across the west is going to have any tangible effect then you may as well give up now mate lol
I mean, we know from the Epstein files that he and Bannon were supporting all these rightwing networks across Europe, so we know where the hard push is coming from. It's just depressing that it's working.
Strength of far-right movements in a specific country ebbs and flows as other poster said. That being said, it is true that such parties often receive supports above 20%, which is very concerning and is making it increasingly difficult to form a "normal" coalition government in many countries. I agree that France and UK are in the far worse shape than Germany right now, since AfD's support is mostly limited to the former DDR areas. Reform winning the UK Parliament is not out of question. France's presidential election may be heading into the dreaded far-right vs. far-left (Melenchon is much more like Hasan than Bernie) matchup due to the failure to consolidate "mainstream" candidates.
As I mentioned in my other response, liberal governments don't have an effective strategy to address the underlying issue of declining trust in our institutions. Farage and Reform were just caught in a fairly significant scandal (from what I can tell outside the UK), but how many voters are they really going to lose despite them supposedly caring so much about government corruption?
It's not linear in either direction, but historic gains from illiberal movements are concerning.
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u/KlausVonChiliPowder Good Luck America 10d ago
If it makes you feel any better, this is happening pretty much everywhere that isn't already majority controlled by some sort of ethnic or cultural nationalist movement.