The West was moving to the right — and then Donald Trump got elected again

…

Something is happening among America’s allies, and it’s a tremendous relief. For some years now, we’ve seen the MAGA-infused global right gaining a foothold amongst western democracies, largely driven by the same demagogic, nationalist, pseudo-populism that has fueled Donald Trump’s dominance on the American right.

Some countries like Hungary have served as a sort of experiment for the kind of post-democratic autocracies dreamt of by the modern right wing in which government co-opts, intimidates and de-legitimizes the political opposition to create an authoritarianism that dominates the culture and the politics without a lot of overt violence.

But the rise of the far right among the Western allies seems to be stalling out.

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
    2512·
    21 hours ago

    Celebrating prematurely. The UK is about to go fascist, Germany is teetering on the brink, and Canada only just dodged a bullet for now.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      17 minutes ago

      The UK is hardly about to go fascist. Labour recently won power and there won’t be a national election for years. There were smaller council elections recently and Reform won a few seats, but so did the Greens and Lib Dems. Basically, there were some anti-establishment votes.

      East Germany voted AfD, but the rest of the country defeated that.

      Canada voted Liberal despite a strong anti-establishment sentiment. It’s likely that eventually it will flip back conservative. But, there’s a chance that before that happens, the chaos of Trumpism will make the conservatives in Canada try to become an adult, respectable party rather than Maple MAGA.

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
        104·
        20 hours ago

        Yes, Italy, Hungary and others are already well down the fascist path. Romania just went fascist. Austria is struggling not to be wholly under the far right’s control, depending on a coalition to hold them off. The far right has significant power in the governments of Slovakia, Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden. Portugal and Belgium are also dealing with surging far right movements.

        It’s absurd to conclude it’s over because centrism squeaked through in Canada and Australia. It’s like everyone relaxing in 2020 because the US public were sure to see sense under Biden.

        • andrew0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          29·
          20 hours ago

          I heard that Poland is also cheering for some MAGA guy in the next election… Troubling times ahead.

          For Romania, there might still be a chance in the run-off. However, the difference between the two candidates was quite large (20% difference; 1.8 million votes). Similarly, the other candidates seemed to have voters that would rather vote for the nazi. Most likely all hope is lost, but that 1% chance is still there.

      • FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        161·
        20 hours ago

        Italy has always been a joke, Hungary too

        Greece was coming frighteningly close to nazism a few years back

        It’s so frustrating to see

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
      411·
      21 hours ago

      The UK is a bit away from “about to go fascist”

      Nigel (Nazi-youth-song-singing, frequent RT guest apologist for Putin & emphatic volunteer for 2nd in line of any future human trumpepede) Farage is as close to actual power as he’s ever been—which is not at all.

      His party’s existence actually potentially helps more reasonable parties because he is splitting the right wing vote

      • damdy@lemm.eeEnglish
        25·
        20 hours ago

        Labour are going to have to come up with something soon though or things could go bad; I get it’s their first year and they’re doing unpopular things early so they’re not fresh for next election, but they’re really unpopular right now.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      153·
      17 hours ago

      … Canada only just dodged a bullet for now

      By 3 points; less than a basketball goal

      And don’t forget that Italy, Poland and Hungary are already there and we’re about to invade the few countries that went left.

    • iamnotme@feddit.uk
      211·
      21 hours ago

      We don’t have a general election for another 4 years in the UK.

      Reform won some council seats and are already having issues.

        • iamnotme@feddit.uk
          2·
          6 hours ago

          Absolutely, but people believe the hype, just like they did when Farage was an MEP despite him effecting no positive changes.

          With social media and the internet nowadays it’s easy to appeal to a disaffected part of the voting populace with lies and half truths.