The continent that created fascism does not seem cured of that disease, in view of the level of votes that the parties inheritors of that ideology and other similar formations are achieving in Europe.
Portugal, one of the countries that seemed vaccinated against this phenomenon, fell this Sunday when "Chega",
a far-right formation, reached 18% of the votes.
In the entire European continent there are hardly any important ultra parties left, Ireland, Cyprus, Malta, and especially the French-speaking part of Belgium, where the extreme right is non-existent.
The vote for these parties (we can include in that label those that in the European Parliament meet in two groups: ECR and ID) in the last elections held in a series of countries
shows a continuous rise
.
In Hungary it reached 60%, in Poland 51%, in Italy 35%, in the Netherlands and France 23%, in Sweden 21%, in Finland 20%, in Austria 16%, in Denmark 14%, in Greece and Belgium 13% and in Spain 12%.
Polls say that in Germany the far-right AfD is already around 15%.
The polls give him around 25% of the votes in the European elections in June.
Its rise can also be measured by its participation in government coalitions.
If a little more than 20 years ago the European Union was on the verge of approving sanctions against a state in the bloc, Austria, for including the far-right FPO in the Vienna executive and forced them to leave it, now the situation has changed a lot.
The far right
is part of the governments of Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia and Romania
.
He supports the Swedish government from Parliament and could soon govern the Netherlands.
Thus, with the Dutchman Geert Wilders, these parties would have another country in the European Council, reinforcing the Italian Giorgia Meloni, the Slovakian Robert Fico or the Hungarian Viktor Orban.
Frenchwoman Marine Le Pen expects a very good result in June.
AFP Photo
His only departure from a government in recent years came in 2023 in Poland when the conservative Donald Tusk got rid of the ultranationalists of the PiS.
Their power and influence is greater than national data can show
.
In Spain they are not in the central government because they did not join with the conservatives of the Popular Party, but they are in five of the 17 regional governments.
In France, Marine Le Pen's far-right is expected to obtain an overwhelming victory, above 30%, in the European elections on June 9.
In Belgium they can control the regional government of Flanders starting in June (it is the most decentralized country in Europe and more than six of the 11.5 million Belgians live in Flanders).
Beyond their direct access to power, their growth in recent years has made national conservative formations try to plug the waterway that generates votes by getting closer to them.
For this reason, speeches and policies that a decade ago were proposed by the far-right in the face of scandal and widespread anger from other political formations,
are now promoted by traditional conservative formations.
VOX leader Santiago Abascal in an interview.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
In its electoral program for the European elections, the European People's Party, the formation that brings together conservatives and Christian Democrats,
proposes sending asylum seekers to African countries, a copy of the "Rwanda plan"
that the British government is trying to implement in response to the reluctance of Justice and that goes against both the Geneva Refugee Convention and the European Asylum Directive.
The Belgian paradox
Belgium is politically divided in two and is the rarest case in Europe in terms of the development and influence of the extreme right.
While among Flemish voters the two far-right parties (the ultranationalists of the NVA and the neo-Nazis of the Vlaams Belang)
could surpass 50% in June (in addition to the European ones there are regional and legislative ones)
and, if they agree, control the powerful regional government, Among Francophones, the extreme right does not exist, it does not have a single municipal councilor among more than five million people.
Francophone Belgium is thus
the last European stronghold
that can say that it does not have any elected officials from a far-right party, the last Gallic village before the advance of the empire of the Roman salute.
P.B.