European Elections: Fascist Threat on the Rise

In the elections for the European Parliament (EP) held in the second week of June, fascist parties significantly increased their share of the vote, upsetting the political balance in many European countries. While some ignore the growing danger by claiming that the centre parties are still the biggest force, the picture is clear. This is not just a matter of the parliamentary arithmetic created by the recent elections, nor is it an ordinary shift to the right. What is happening is the confirmation of the fascist rise with the picture that emerged in the elections for the European Parliament. In these elections, while the centre-left and the Greens lost their power, the centre-right maintained its strength and the fascist parties became the third largest group in the European Parliament.[1]

It is particularly noteworthy that the fascist rise in the three big countries of the EU has reached dangerous dimensions. In France, the fascist Marine Le Pen’s party became the first party to win more than twice as many votes (31.5 per cent) as her closest rival Macron’s party. In Italy, the fascist Meloni’s party remained in first place with almost 28 per cent of the vote. In Germany, the ruling Social Democrats and the Greens suffered a significant loss of votes, while the fascist AfD became the second largest party after the Christian Democrats. Fascist parties also came out on top in Austria and Hungary. In Belgium they shared first place, while in the Netherlands they came second.

Since the collapse of the USSR, the traditional right and left parties of the bourgeois political spectrum have coalesced around a “centre” united in neo-liberal policies, nationalism and war. This centre has been in steady decline since the late 1990s, and growing sections of working people, reacting against these policies, are seeking a more extreme political position. At one extreme are fascist movements, which are dangerously gaining strength, while at the other extreme there is a tendency towards more radical left/socialist ideas. The rise of the class movement in the West, the radicalised student movement and the growing strength of the anti-war movement are expressions of this. In fact, the reason why the bourgeoisie has done so much to pave the way for fascist movements is that this search for the left is gaining strength. The fascist parties are expanding their base with a demagogy centred on anti-immigrant and nationalism, even though they have no plans or ability to solve any of the real problems.

Fascism has never been a spontaneous political movement to which the working masses spontaneously turn. This movement is organised and prepared by the bourgeoisie itself in periods of systemic crisis and heightened perception of the threat to the order. “Today, as a result of the historical crisis of capitalism, a new world war, the Third World War, is taking place. Bearing striking resemblances to the disastrous periods of the past, the Third World War is increasingly spreading its flames into new territories. If a lesson is to be drawn from past experiences, one must see the link between the rise of fascism and the periods of great crisis of capitalism and imperialist war”.[2]

Indeed, many of the fascist parties that are now prominent in the European Parliament elections were founded in the period after the 2008 crisis, gradually gaining strength and going on the offensive with the wars in Libya, Yemen and Syria, which have left Europe inundated with waves of migrants. The subsequent crisis of 2020 and the pandemic policies implemented to overshadow this crisis, which has driven millions of workers, shopkeepers, farmers, unemployed, bankrupt and hopeless, made it easier for fascist movements to gain strength from here.

We know that the hope that grips the proletariat in revolutionary periods also draws the petty bourgeoisie into the movement. However, in periods when the bourgeois regime is in despair, when the socialist movement fails to come up with a revolutionary response to this crisis, and therefore when counterrevolutionary despair seizes the petty-bourgeoisie, this mechanism is reversed and the proletariat is caught in this wave. As Elif Çağlı puts it,

“Tumultuous processes, where masses swing between great expectations and deep disappointments, offer a favourable environment for fascism to establish its mass base. With their hopes for democracy and higher living standards gradually overshadowed by crisis and war, masses begin to feel more and more anxious about the future. Unable to grasp the true cause of the impasse and find a way out, unorganised masses become susceptible to all kinds of deceptions. When they fail to direct their anger at the right target, masses can fall into the trap of ‘common enemy’, set by fascist and chauvinistic circles. Thus, they steer their anger into an enmity against a fellow people, which serves the interests of ruling powers. It is generally on such a basis that the ruling class fosters nationalism in society. During their rise to power, Bonapartes, Führers and the like exploit the ignorance of the masses in such a vulgar way and masquerade as the saviour of society for their own ambitions to build a dictatorship.”[3]

Today, when the bourgeois regimes in the European countries are becoming more and more authoritarian, the fascist movements, trying to attract the workers who are angry and reacting against the devastation caused by capitalism, appeal to their most backward feelings with crude nationalist rhetoric. By creating artificial internal and external enemies and presenting them as the source of all negativity, they hide the real enemy, capitalism. Let us remember that the propaganda of the fascist movements, which used the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity, was based on opposition to the left, to immigrants, to the EU and to liberal democracy. The propaganda that the pandemic was a product of “globalisation”, “open borders and free movement” had a huge impact. The fascists, who further stoked nationalism and anti-EU sentiment during the pandemic, went so far as to argue that nation states should be ethnically homogenised and strengthened to fight the virus. At a time when the majority of the left was advocating “lockdown”, working people were pushed into the arms of fascist movements, which organised the reaction against this devastating policy on reactionary grounds.

After the pandemic, fascist parties continued to gain strength by targeting the left, immigrants and EU policies. One of the policies targeted by the fascist parties, which have made huge gains in the elections in many European countries, is the European Green Deal, which is to be implemented under the name of “green measures”. This agreement has provoked a strong reaction from the peasantry, as the recent protests have shown. Fascist movements, on the other hand, are trying to turn this social segment into their own seedlings by exploiting the reactions of the farmers against the EU, countries where cheap agricultural products come from, etc. Fascists like the AfD in Germany, Le Pen in France, Orban in Hungary etc. appear on the side of the farmers in the protests. It is known that just before the EP elections, the Orbanists held meetings with European farmers in Brussels to launch a “collective resistance” against the EU and tried to create a network on this basis.[4]These efforts are part of the long-term organisational plan of the fascist movement and, as the recent election results show, this plan is being carried out successfully.

As we have pointed out in our previous articles, Trump's former senior adviser Steve Bannon had already been working hard to ensure that the fascist parties would have a majority to form a strong group in the 2019 European Parliament elections. Bannon, who tried to create a fascist alliance in Europe on the basis of anti-migrant and anti-EU sentiments, had also set up a political organisation in Brussels for this purpose. Bannon, who organised meetings with fascist parties in all European countries, gave them financial support and also supported them through public opinion companies, tried to include these parties in this organisation, which he called “The Movement”.[5]As we can see, these efforts were continued and expanded and achieved their aim. Thus, two separate fascist groups were formed in the European Parliament under the leadership of Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni.

We have already noted that the election results have shaken the political balance in many countries. In France, we can say that this upheaval was an earthquake. Faced with the fact that Le Pen's National Unity party had twice as many votes as his own, Macron decided to dissolve parliament and call early elections. Accordingly, the first round of the legislative elections will be held on 30 June and the second round on 7 July, while the presidential elections will be held as scheduled, in 2027. Macron, who said he took this decision to prevent the far right from taking power in the 2027 presidential elections, believes that by forming an alliance with the left, he will prevent the National Unity Party from coming to power. On the other hand, the fact that Jordan Bardella, to whom Le Pen handed over the chairmanship of the National Unity party, is having dinners with the leading names of the business world, that Bardella, unlike Le Pen, who is known to be close to Putin, is positioned in the Atlanticist camp, that the sharpness in the various policies of the party is being smoothed out, that the anti-EU discourse is being softened, etc. show that the bourgeoisie is slowly warming up to this fascist party and that it is slowly warming up to power.

Another country where the election results have changed the political balance is Germany. In this country, where the fascist AfD became the second largest party after the Christian Democrats, the ruling SPD-Green coalition suffered a serious loss of votes. The Greens, who had attracted the attention of young people with their peace and environmental policies, began to advocate the sharpest pro-war policies when they became government partners, causing a serious reaction among their base. Its inconsistent environmental policy also contributed to this. The same applies to the Social Democrats. The SPD’s stance on Ukraine and the war in Gaza shows that its policies are no different from those of the right-wing parties. On the other hand, Sahra Wagenknecht, who left Die Linke, founded her eponymous alliance on the nationalist left (BSW), which won 6.2 per cent of the vote in its first elections and sent 6 MEPs to the EP. Wagenknecht claims that she can win votes from the AfD’s base with the line she defends. As a result, in such an environment where the bourgeois right and left are so intermingled, it can be seen that young people and working people who are worried about their future can easily be caught in the wind of the chauvinist/racist climate marked by anti-immigrant sentiment.

Capitalism has completely lost its ability to repair the devastation caused by the disasters it has created. All the means and plans that the bourgeoisie clings to in the name of a solution cause new destruction. In order to prevent the revolutionary mobilisation that develops in reaction to this, fascist movements and leaders are now much more openly brought to the fore. Therefore, the fascist danger is growing not only in Europe but also in the USA. The fact that Trump, who came to power with nationalist slogans such as “Make America Great Again”, “America First”, and who became reckless enough to attempt a coup when he lost his seat, can again emerge as the strongest candidate for the US presidency today shows the gravity of the situation we are going through.

As Elif Çağlı points out, “In such periods, it is of utmost significance to tirelessly explain realities to the working class and toiling masses and to enlighten them about the true intentions of the likes of Bonaparte and Führer, who resort to all kinds of deceptions, demagogies, provocations and massacres in their efforts to establish a cruel dictatorship. It is extremely vital to orient workers and toilers towards the struggle against these class enemies.”[6]

Unfortunately, fascist movements, which have been on the rise at a much faster pace especially since the 2008 crisis, have continued to grow without such an inhibiting dynamic against them. Moreover, fascist organisations are presented as normal and legitimate under names such as “right-wing populism” spread by bourgeois liberalism, the growing danger of fascism is hidden from view and the working class is left defenceless against this threat. Those who maintain the idiotic approach that “the bourgeoisie is burned out by Nazism, it will never again resort to such a destructive tool as fascism” unfortunately continue to exist not only among bourgeois liberals but also within the socialist movement.

Although the warnings that the failure of the fascist parties to reach a parliamentary majority is not enough to rejoice are being voiced by a wider section of people than before, the main perception that the bourgeois media are trying to create is the perception that “the centre is still strong, there is nothing to fear, this fascist movement is not like the Nazis of the past”. However, as the conditions mature, the hostility of the fascist movements to democracy and freedom, as well as their anti-worker aggressive character, becomes much clearer.

It is obvious that today’s conditions, in which there is not yet a revolutionary socialist movement organised on a class basis and which is a centre of attraction with the power it derives from this, allow fascism to gain strength in a much more advantageous way. As the left sinks into identity politics instead of class politics, the working class is dragged behind bourgeois politics instead of turning to class politics. Ultimately, the failure to strengthen a socialist alternative based on the working class leads to the strengthening of nationalism instead of internationalism, of fascism instead of revolution. The way to fight fascism is clear: strengthen the revolutionary organisation and struggle of the working class! Otherwise it will not be possible to prevent history from repeating itself.