Is the West Experiencing a Right-Wing Drift?

That should be just a poll, I don't think there have been elections recently. The first word translates to "Sunday question," which I think also indicates that this is a poll.

"Next regular elections in Fall 2025"

Yes, sorry, just polling nothing more than that. I think its the first time AfD have topped 20 nationally, but these are some big rises in the east.

No elections upcoming, think the next is Slovakia with Fico now topping polls

Worthwhile chat on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFf4RCtPfBI

Also gets into the point that a lot of rightwing more visible characters at the moment are just whining cranks and low-effort idiots, but there are others out there who might be harder to counter and the usual dunks won’t work

Well the class struggle is not going to be won by dunks, as enjoyable those may be.

the dunks don't work

so far 2023 has been the year the far right have shifted from "raging at cancel culture" to "using cancel culture to push the Overton window as far as possible" and unfortunately it seems to be working.

the dunks don't work

They just make you worse

feels like Spain dodged a bullet today

The question is, did Vox deflate and PP grow because Spain's right is moving away from frothing nationalism, or because PP has gone frothing-nationalist enough to co-opt erstwhile Vox voters?

feels like Spain dodged a bullet today

otm

Looks more like a stalemate than dodging a bullet, and that they could need new elections a few months from now.

Do we still have any ilxors in Spain? I am curious about the success of the various left groupings... From what I understand through things like a wealth tax, free public transport schemes, guaranteed national minimum income etc etc Spain has avoided the inflation/recession double whammy coming soon to the UK. Feels like making a material difference to people's lives might be a pretty good way of keeping the fash at bay, and something more centre left parties across Europe should take note of?

Yes, it's pretty positive. Believe Spanish government also introduced rent controls. Incredible result given unemployment levels.

Vox got less seats however I have seen tweets saying it was because the right has incorporated their program.

I would strongly advise against checking out the comments on youtube reaction videos to Try That In A Small Town

I would strongly advise against checking out the comments on youtube reaction videos to Try That In A Small Town

I would strongly advise against checking out the comments on youtube reaction videos to Try That In A Small Town

I have managed to avoid actually listening to the song.

I would strongly advise against checking out the comments on youtube reaction videos to Try That In A Small Town

*doctor misdiagnosing rheumatoid arthritis* I would strongly advise against checking out the comments on youtube reaction videos to Try That In A Small Town

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/08/22/slovak-opposition-claims-sep-election-will-be-stolen-and-too-many-believe-it/

Looking ahead to Slovakia's election next month, as Fico and SMER are now leading on 24% in latest couple of polls

Not trying to be a dickhead, but as someone who has spent a fair amount of time in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, I don’t think of them as part of the “West” because frankly, they’re not, despite any memberships in the EU or NATO or etc,

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/05/slovak-election-pitches-past-against-future-says-democratic-contender/

More on the election in two weeks, Fico consistently leading in polls for quite a while now

https://www.dw.com/en/german-conservatives-scorned-over-vote-with-far-right-afd/a-66822806

the cordon sanitaire against the AfD continues to weaken

The CDU joined forces with both the AfD and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) to sink the tax on buying real estate in Thuringia from 6.5% to 5%.

Together, the three parties were able to muscle the legislation past the state's minority government of the Left, the Social Democrats and the Greens, which together have only 42 of the parliament's 90 seats.

The CDU's Merz has defended the actions of his colleagues in Thuringia, saying the CDU did not shape policy according to what how other parties would vote. He denied that the CDU had worked with the AfD and said the party's so-called "firewall" against the far-right would be maintained at both state and national levels.

a couple of month's ago Merz was publicly musing on the CDU dropping it's opposition to working with the AfD at municipal level, though he backtracked after criticism.

also, this is from the lead editorial in this weeks Economist:

How should centrist voters and parties respond to the threat from the hard right? The old answer was to erect a cordon sanitaire. Mainstream parties refused to work with the insurgents; mainstream media refused to air their views. That approach may have run out of road; in places it is becoming counter-productive. In Germany the isolation of the afd has reinforced its narrative of being the only alternative to a failed establishment. Mainstream parties cannot pretend for ever not to hear the voice of 20% of voters without eventually corroding democracy.

Meanwhile, there is more evidence that hard-right parties in Europe tend to moderate their views when they have to take responsibility for governing.

Any decision to include a hard-right party in local or national government should be taken with extreme caution, especially in places where a history of fascism arouses acute sensitivity. Some rules of the road may help. One is that to be considered, any party must agree to renounce violence and respect the rule of law. Just as important is the constitutional context: at what level of government should they be included? What are the checks and balances created by the electoral system and other institutions? It may make sense to allow the afd to take part as junior members of local-government coalitions in Germany, for example.

Shocking that the Economist would be first in line for the "don't let's be beastly to the nazis" takes.

remember that other party they said would moderate their views when they got into power?

part whatever in the liberals talking themselves into fascism series

Some rules of the road may help.

chef's kiss

don't you understand, they agreed to renounce violence and respect the rule of law! what could possibly go wrong?

also fuck the Economist forever

You can't take the name Face-Eating Tigers Party literally.

Election taking place tomorrow, SMERs lead looks relatively small. Not that clear which way this might go

Fico/SMER wins as expected (though exit polls got it wrong, polls in the run in were correct)

He'll need to form a coalition, but the votes for it look to be there

Where is this?

Slovakia, election yesterday

Restrictions on L.G.B.T.Q. Depictions Rattle Hungary’s Cultural World

uh oh

Argentina?

seems like it's gonna get weird

Did he really fuck his sister

Dutch elections today, Geert Wilders' PVV in front

ffs

I'm just going to stop listening to or following the news tbh.

This what happens when the lovely, cushy centre lose

Tr**p winning flashback for this American in NL. What a disaster.

Not sure how the coalition prospects for him compare to, say, Poland's incumbent party. Could take some time anyway.

As the far-right Alternative for Germany continues to rise — and its radicalism becomes increasingly pronounced — a growing chorus of mainstream politicians is asking whether the best way to stop the party is to try to ban it.

The debate kicked off in earnest after Saskia Esken, the co-chief of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD), came out earlier this month in favor of discussing a ban — if only, as she put it, to “shake voters” out of their complacency.

https://www.politico.eu/article/can-a-ban-stop-the-rise-of-germanys-far-right/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter

this seems nuts to me, banning a party that is polling at 23% nationally and getting over a third of the vote in some eastern states, is there any way that this could actually "work"?

Germany’s constitution allows for bans of parties that “seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order” — essentially allowing the state to use anti-democratic means to prevent an authoritarian party from corroding democracy from within.

In reality, the legal hurdle for imposing a ban is very high. Germany’s constitutional court has only done it twice: The Socialist Reich Party, an heir to the Nazi party, was banned in 1952, while the Communist Party of Germany was prohibited in 1956.

More recently, in 2017, the court ruled that a neo-Nazi party known as the National Democratic Party (NPD), while meeting the ideological criteria for a prohibition, was too fringe to ban, as it lacked popular support and therefore the power to endanger German democracy.

it seems like there's a catch-22 here where you can't ban a small party because it's too fringe to endanger democracy, but also if a party is large enough to endanger democracy you can't ban it either because it's just not practical and/or you are 'endangering democracy' by the act of banning it?

this seems nuts to me, banning a party that is polling at 23% nationally and getting over a third of the vote in some eastern states, is there any way that this could actually "work"?

Well, one way of looking at that is you could apply the same rationale to not banning the nazi party during the Weimar era.

So an apology is always good but this guy took the money at the time.

Today, first time in Polish TV, after 8 years of right-wing government, the LGBT+ activists appeared in live broadcast. I was seating there and heard journalist shaking voice. He made an apology after years of portraying LGBT-people a threat to Polish nation in the same studio.… pic.twitter.com/kOjzKrRHPf

— Bart Staszewski (@BartStaszewski) February 11, 2024