Tribune. The extreme right nationalist, Eurosceptic, xenophobic and populist experienced, in variable forms, continued growth in its voices, from the 1990s, in most Western European countries. Its scores increased significantly over the last decade, including its exploitation of fears generated by the influx of hundreds of thousands of extra-European refugees. Countries long spared, such as Germany or Spain, that we thought immunized because of their fascist past, have thus experienced a spectacular breakthrough of the far right.
In France, the National Front (FN), which has become a national gathering (RN), has only been able to access a handful of cities. But in some parliamentary democracies, because of a proportional statement of voting, these far-right parties have managed to weigh on executive power, or by supporting a minority government (in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands), or by participating directly in a government coalition (in Austria, Finland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland).
East, a strong moral conservatism
This experience of power was fatal to them in Austria, Norway and the Netherlands, while rather strengthened them in Switzerland and especially in Denmark. In any of these countries, however, a far-right party has only been able to access power alone and control all the levers. Nowhere is one of them reached 30% of the votes and most remained below 20% in the legislative elections.
It is necessary to turn to the east of Europe, Poland and in Hungary, in particular, to find nationalist parties who have made a low hand on the state. It can be noted, however, that the latter have less flourished by relying on xenophobia that by supporting protectionist social and economic policies and promoting a strong moral conservatism, referring to the demographic – the rural world, coupled in Poland to that of the Catholic Church.
Why is France the only country in Western Europe where a far-right candidate could perhaps conquer “supreme power” by achieving this considerable threshold of more than 50% of the votes cast? If she succeeded, Marine Le Pen would do better than Donald Trump, not only because, unlike this one, she does not have the support of an “old and grand party” [the great old party, nickname of the Republican Party], but because the latter was elected president without being in the vote.
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