In recent years, many Western nations have seen the emergence of successful far-right political parties, which have in some cases acquired top positions in government. Although hard-right politicians are hardly new, their emergence in Europe and Israel has no precedent in the last seventy-five years. Despite the diversity of nations across which these parties exist, there are a number of shared characteristics that can be used to identify such parties as “far-right” or on the border of that label. These characteristics include being averse to immigrants, especially on a racial or religious basis, denying uncomfortable historical truths, and being friendly to Russia with their war in Ukraine, just to name a few. These parties are typically populist and utilize nationalistic rhetoric to a large extent.
In France, the National Rally party, led by Marine Le Pen, is the second largest party. In 2022, Marine Le Pen garnered more than 13 million votes to take the second-place spot in that year’s elections. Le Pen constantly reiterates the claim that immigrants, especially Muslim ones, are changing the country for the worse, even using the word “Islamization” to describe this supposed phenomenon. On top of that, Marine Le Pen, while not quite so revisionist with regards to history as her father (a politician and holocaust denier), does deny the fact that France had any responsibility for the deportation of Jews during World War II. Distressingly, Emmanuel Macron, the centrist president, has been lagging in polls. The National Rally party is now the most popular, and if the upcoming 2027 presidential election were to happen right now, Le Pen and her far-right party would likely win.
In Hungary, Viktor Orban and his far-right Fidesz party have made it far, having won control of the presidency and parliament. Last year, the European Parliament (the Parliament of the European Union) voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that declared Hungary to be an “electoral autocracy” or a nation where the people do vote for their leader and there are electoral competitors allowed, but typical characteristics of a democracy like free press are ignored. It is because of this that the ruling party is almost guaranteed to win any elections in a system like Hungary’s. Hungary is also now considered to be only partly-free by Freedom House (a think tank), the sole country in the European Union to earn such a label. In 2011, Orban, with a commanding majority, was able to create a new constitution for Hungary, changing hundreds of laws. This comes alongside his party’s anti-immigrant, highly pro-Russian, and anti-academia platform to make for a real far-right party that has moved away from the nations of the West and into the cold embrace of Vladimir Putin. The story of Hungary shows us what happens when radical ideologies are able to get their hands on the reins of a nation.
Israel is another country where the fringe right has become mainstream. Currently, Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party head a coalition of a number of conservative parties, most of which aren’t far right. However, in order for Netanyahu to hold onto his position, he relies upon the far right’s votes, and thus he often has to bow to their radical will. A disturbing example of the radical policies in Israel occurred earlier this year, when the ruling coalition tried to take away much of the power of the Supreme Court, which would consolidate power in the hands of whatever coalition holds the Knesset (Israeli parliament). A revised but comparably dangerous law was passed this July. On top of this, the new governing coalition has been more aggressive when it comes to the Palestinian issue, with the far right members of the Israeli government taking this to the extreme. The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, even went so far as to say that a Palestinian village of 7000 people should be “erased” following a Palestinian terror attack that occurred nearby a few days earlier. This was condemned only indirectly by Netanyahu – showing that the Israeli far-right is no longer only present on the sidelines, but is instead powerful enough to where the Israeli prime minister cannot risk criticizing these horrible remarks.
The far-right is prevalent and on the rise in many countries, and not only in the aforementioned ones. For example, Sweden, Austria, and Germany all have healthy and growing far-right parties, with the latter two certainly being no strangers to this kind of radicalism. As populism grips some European nations, many observers are asking why this is happening and what can we do to make sure that no democracies fall like Hungary did.