I think this is all a bigger part of cracks appearing in the European and even western (on the whole) societies. You can look just about everywhere in Europe, similar things are happening gradually everywhere. Right-wing and as such also far-right leaning ideas are on the rise, no matter the country you look in. Britain, France, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc, if you look at the election results.
Then there are cases where the french military officer core outright tells you that thereās going to be a war soon if something is not done with the foreign problems in the country, or this belgium case, or a greek party being declared a terrorist organization- The tighter the cord pulls around people that, seem to side with these concerns (over 50% of french supported the officer core call-out), the more support they gain. And this is not just the fault of the far right, or right wing politicians.
Itās the fault of the hegemony of center-left parties, politicians and influencers that have, for some 30-40+ years been ignorant/dismissive of the concerns of the people. Their worries regarding their neighbourhoods turning unrecognizable, their jobs being imported overseas / to cheaper labour countries, or that some overseas entity like the EU is facelessly gaining more power over their lives even when the reason they joined EU first and foremost was a trade Union, but now itās turning into a political union. Theyāve been told, time and again that their ideas are wrong, racist and backwards, and have been told that they must simply accept the new normal.
Well, there was always only two outcomes out of this. Either people swallow it, or push back. The center-left really tested how far they can go with things with the financial crisis of 2008, which is where I feel the problems really started mounting from. The Ukraine crisis, the refugee crisis, a blow after blow into the facade of the center-left folk that had no clear or good answers were suddenly shown as having lied / been incompetent. And then Brexit happened, which showed that you can actually successfully fight back.
Encouraged, far-right and right wing people have rallied up everywhere you look at. And you know why?
because the left never debated them. The left never listened to their concerns or even tried to mitigate them. They just kept telling them to either shut up, accept the new or that they are racist.
But, just like the story about the boy that cried wolf, when people started to see that they are actually not the minority but the majority with these concerns, they started rallying up. And with it, also the more far-right elements rose up, emboldened by the rise in right-wing ideas, as itād be in the opposite case as well.
I really donāt think that people understand that just how much the financial crisis of 2008 and subsequently the absolute state the center-left has been in, taking a punch after punch without ever rising to try and defend itself/debate the opposing side or take in their concerns has actually contributed to the current state of affairs. I donāt know about you, but I definitely remember crystal clear that back then, nobody really questioned the status quo. Yes, there were the occasional dissident voices about foreigners, EU, Brussels and whatnot, but they were isolated cases here and there. And yet, here we are, some 13 years later.
The biggest mistake the center-left has made is that they have chosen not to debate/defend their ideas in front of the larger public. By trying to shut up the opposition, making laws to ban what they think/say or criminalizing them in one way or another is all going to pile into the lair of the far-right, because the problem is now institutionalized and embedded into the society. You canāt silence it anymore, itās everywhere already. And by trying to do so, you just end up looking like an opponent of freedom, which is the very foundation of European societies, and like you are trying to hide the problems, rather than solve them.
By opening a dialogue with your enemies and dismantling their views in debates and/or sympathizing with their concerns instead of dismissing them, I think the change is yet possible. But I have my doubts. Either way, nature will take itās course, one way or another.
