Because Russia promotes an agenda that is native to Europe, few seem to realize this Second Cold War is just as ideological as the first.
If anything, the fact that Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine can tap into a homegrown Western reactionary movement that shares its beliefs makes the ideological challenge he poses more insidious. (more…)
Republicans in France are likely to take a harder line against President Emmanuel Macron under the leadership of Laurent Wauquiez.
An education minister in the last conservative government, Wauquiez prevailed in an internal leadership ballot on Sunday with almost 75 percent of the votes.
He has ruled out alliances with both Macron’s centrists and the far-right National Front.
But he argues the party must take the fight to the latter by returning to what he sees as the “true values of the right”: order, respect and security. (more…)
Sebastian Kurz’ success may not be a template for other conservative party leaders.
The young Christian democrat defeated the far right in Austria this weekend by moving his People’s Party to the right on identity issues and immigration.
But Austria is more right-wing than most countries in Europe and its Freedom Party still achieved an almost historic result on Sunday. (more…)
Florian Philippot’s ouster from the National Front makes political sense.
Philippot was for years Marine Le Pen’s right-hand man. Together they transformed the reactionary party, which has deep roots in the French Algerian exile community, into a broad Euroskeptic and nativist force that could appeal to rust-belt voters.
They de-demonized the National Front. Le Pen won 34 percent support in this year’s presidential election, doubling her father’s record from fifteen years ago.
But it still wasn’t enough. (more…)
Kate Maltby argues in The Guardian that Britain’s Conservative Party has lost its way.
For centuries, Conservatives warned against the dangers of too much change too quickly, she points out. They argued revolutions leave children starving and adults bleeding. That stability leads to prosperity. That inequality is a price worth paying for economic growth.
Don’t rock the boat, don’t scare the banks and the middle classes get their quiet life.
Remember the “long-term economic plan”? It was only two years ago that David Cameron couldn’t stop talking about.
Then his party brought Brexit on the United Kingdom. (more…)
Brexit, last month’s lousy election result and Theresa May’s deal with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland to stay in power have divided Britain’s Conservatives into three camps, writes Matthew d’Ancona in The Guardian:
Center-right parties in Western Europe are responding to competition from the nativist right in radically different ways.
Whereas Dutch prime minister and liberal party leader Mark Rutte argued against the “pessimism” of the nationalist Freedom Party in the March election and won, conservative leaders in Austria and the United Kingdom have chosen to appease reactionary voters.
Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian foreign minister, has been elected leader of the Christian democratic People’s Party because he appeals to voters who might switch to the far right.
Kurz made his name writing an Islam Law for Austria that, among other things, prohibits foreign funding of mosques.
He also took a hard line in last year’s refugee crisis, going behind Europe’s back to do a deal with neighboring Balkan countries to control the influx of people.
Other leaders were dismayed, but Austrian voters seem to approve.
A year ago, the Freedom Party was faraway the country’s most popular with around 32 percent support in the polls. Support for the ruling Social Democrats and People’s Party languished in the low twenties. Now the three are neck and neck. There is a good chance Kurz will be the next chancellor. (more…)
France’s National Front will have to reinvent itself after a disappointing election result on Sunday.
The nationalists were hoping to get 40 percent support or more in the presidential runoff, but Marine Le Pen got stuck at 34 percent. Still double her father’s performance when he qualified for the second voting round in 2002, but a letdown nonetheless.
In her concession speech, Le Pen promised voters “profound reform” of her party in order to create “a new political force” for all French “patriots” who oppose the globalism of Emmanuel Macron, the incoming president.
Whether this means starting a new party or rebranding the National Front remains to be seen, but change is in the air. With it could come a struggle for the movement’s identity. (more…)
Politico reports that a long-simmering dispute between the two most prominent women of the French far right is getting out of hand.
There is even a risk of a split in the Front national, the website argues: between the faction of leader Marine Le Pen and the socially conservative wing that has rallied around her 26 year-old niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen.
The fact that it’s a family feud, in which the Le Pen patriarch and Vichy apologist Jean-Marie inevitably resurfaces, makes this a headline-grabbing story.
But there are deeper, geographical and political divides at play that have less to do with personality. (more…)
François Fillon’s unexpectedly strong showing in the French center-right’s primary last weekend has send shockwaves through the French political establishment.
Fillon’s remaining opponent, Alain Juppé — another former prime minister — has lashed out at what he calls a “brutal” economic program and a “conservative, backward-looking” vision for the country.
Fillon isn’t shying away from the label “Thatcherite”, which was once toxic in France. He wants to cut benefits and public-sector jobs in order to bring government spending down from 57 to under 50 percent of gross domestic product. He is also campaigning on longer working hours, a higher retirement age and €40 billion worth of tax cuts for businesses.
That’s more radical than what Juppé has in mind, but both men want to roll back the French welfare state and eliminate taxes and restrictive labor policies that make the country less competitive than its neighbors.
It’s on social issues where they truly diverge — and the differences between them reflect a divided France. (more…)
British prime minister Theresa May has said helping those on middle incomes who are “just about managing” is her top priority.
The trouble, as became clear from Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement on Wednesday, is that her government doesn’t have the money — and that’s because of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. (more…)
If, as expected, Hillary Clinton humiliates Donald Trump in America’s presidential election next week, Republicans must quickly stamp out his nativist insurgency — or risk a hostile takeover by his supporters.
The immediate fight will be in Congress, where Republicans could face two big decisions:
In both cases, Republican lawmakers are torn between doing the right thing and appeasing their hard-right base, which is now in thrall to Trump.
Principled conservatives should be able to justify approving Garland (Clinton’s pick would be worse) and TPP (there was a time when Republicans supported free trade and containing China).
But principled conservatism is not what Trump and his movement are about. (more…)
I argued here last month that Britain’s Conservatives could alienate liberal voters if they lurched too far to the right.
Theresa May’s speech on Thursday to a party conference in Birmingham did nothing to alleviate my concern. (more…)
When Theresa May took over as British prime minister from David Cameron, I argued it was too early to tell if she would break with his legacy.
Two months into May’s premiership, it is becoming clear that at least in some ways she is.
When she was named Conservative Party leader and hence prime minister this summer, there were expectations — which the Atlantic Sentinel reported — that the former home secretary would find a middle way between the big-city liberalism of Cameron and his deputy, George Osborne, on the one hand and the Tory paternalism of the past on the other.
That would have made sense. Cameron’s and Osborne’s cosmopolitanism had helped the Conservatives reach new voters in the center of British politics — with policies such as autonomous schools, marriage equality and lower business tax rates — but it also lost people on the right with its relaxed views on immigration.
Even if, in Britain’s two-party system, such right-wing voters don’t really have anywhere else to go, June’s European Union referendum revealed that plenty of them are dissatisfied with the status quo — and that could hurt the Conservatives if ever a credible alternative did emerge on the right. (more…)
