BBC News is reporting the recent EU elections as a victory for the right, particularly the “far right”. I don’t know enough about the EU parties to judge this presentation at the European level, but at the British level I’m not seeing it. The UK MEP election results show Labor losing five seats, with one going to the Conservatives, one going to the UKIP, one going to the Liberal Democrats, and two going to BNP. That looks to me like Labor is bleeding support in all directions, probably because of Prime Minister Brown’s growing unpopularity.
The Conservatives are a centre-right party, roughly equivilent to the US Republican Party.
The UKIP is a mainstream libertarian party, similar to the libertarian wing of the Republican Party (flat tax, school vouchers, nuclear power, defense of civil liberties, etc).
The Lib Dems are a left-libertarian party (socially liberal, favoring redistribution of wealth, but opposing “nanny state” policies).
The BNP is an overtly racist party with fascist roots which favors socialist economic policies.
I’m not seeing any coherent ideological themes between these four parties. Conservatives and UKIP have large agreements on economic policy. Lib Dems and UKIP largely agree on social and civil liberties issues. And all three of Conservatives, Lib Dems, and UKIP are probably embarassed to be in the same room as the BNP. But the only thing all four parties seem to have in common is that Gordon Brown isn’t leading any of them.
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Eric,
numbers wise, of course you’re right. but i think even losing one seat to an overtly racist party has to be considered a victory for racism (right or left). think of the american analog. imagine the change that would have to happen in mainstream america for the kkk to win a seat in the house without the entire nation going apoplectic. the sea change that underlies the election of even one transparent and open racist to civil service has to be considered a fairly important racist victory.
The BNP wins in Britain are alarming because this is the first time this fascist party (or any fascist party) has won seats at national elections. The BNP and the National Front have been around for decades. Fascist parties were founded in Britain during WWII, when fascism was popular worldwide – but they never won elections in Britain until now.
Fascists have already gained power in Austria, and when I wrote an article about that, many British commenters said that they were going to support the BNP in the next elections. It was clear that Gordon Brown’s incompetence and his open support of the Muslim Brotherhood would lead to this kind of result.
When a government allies with the enemy, people see that extremism=power, and the moderates appear to be incompetent and weak. People decide to support extremists who are the enemy of their enemy (the greens, the MB, the BNP) and the crazies start to take over…
Absolutely, the BNP is disgusting, and it’s cause for concern that they’ve won even a small number of seats. What I’m arguing against is the interpretation that this is a lurch to the right, or even a lurch to the extremes.
For one thing, fascism isn’t an extreme version of conservativism. It’s a completely seperate animal which has about as much in common with the center-left as with the center-right, which is not much.
For another, the other parties which are picking up support (at least in Britain) are neither extreme nor (except the Tories) conservative. All three of the Tories, the Lib-Dems, and UKIP are within shouting distance of the center, and UKIP and the Lib-Dems both have strong libertarian streaks.
It’s a completely seperate animal which has about as much in common with the center-left as with the center-right, which is not much.
In Europe, fascists are part of the lunatic fringe, as are the ‘Respect’ leftists and the Muslim Brotherhood. But it’s still worth noting that right and left ‘centrist’ parties in Europe are much more socialist than the Left in America.
These elections aren’t a sign of a lurch to the right, but they could be a sign that people are getting really sick of ineffective centrist parties.
I hope that the British vote for the BNP is just a sign that people are angry with Gordon Brown. The French voted for the fascist Le Pen a while back for the same reason. After they showed the government how angry they were (and after they scared themselves) they voted for centrists.
I don’t really care about European politics, but I do have a global theory of what is happening, there. Admittedly, it is half-baked, but I still think the entire continent remains scarred from WWII. So much death, so much destruction, so much dislocation, that they can’t seem to find their way. Their primary focus seems to be avoiding battles, avoiding bloodshed. They don’t believe in free-market capitalism (flaws and all), they don’t want any more wars (not a bad thing), and they have largely abandonned God.
So, life goes on, there. Ya got the World Cup, you got the Euro……..
This is mostly Western Europe, not Eastern
HankB
I heard or read a commentator today (can’t remember who, unfortunately) explain this sort of description as an artifact of media political bias.
They attempt to frame the discussion in binary/polarizing terms, as this is most amenable to persuasive discussion (as in “you are either with us, or you are against us”
The BBC and many other media outlets are aligned with Labour Party type politics (i.e., socialist, social democrat, traditional fascist, statist, corporatist, crony capitalist, Chicago, etc….).
No matter what it’s called, they share a belief in high levels of government control and planning, especially of business and economic decisions, often with goals of equitable distribution of wealth and minimization of highs and lows of business cycles.
And if you don’t support such policies, you are by definition (currently, at least) “right wing”.
jaymaster,
the BBC world news coverage of the elections last night was particularly egregious. the commentator came right out and was like: “although you’d expect folks to vote left during an economic downturn…”
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