How Europe's surging populist right is reshaping the political establishment

From the upper floors of Millbank Tower, a skyscraper overlooking the River Thames in London, the U.K. Houses of Parliament are just a few hundred yards away. For decades, the building housed the headquarters of Britain's Conservative Party, one of the world's oldest political parties.

Today, it is home to Reform UK, the right-wing populist party led by Nigel Farage that is hoping to — and by some measures may already have — replace the Conservatives as the dominant force on the British right.

The change of occupants reflects a wider political upheaval sweeping some of Europe's biggest democracies. In France, Marine Le Pen's right-wing National Rally has overtaken much of the traditional right ahead of the next year's presidential election.

In Germany, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has made historic electoral gains, challenging the center-right Christian Democrats. There are similar trends in Italy, Spain, Sweden and other corners of the continent.

While the histories and ambitions of the movements in all these countries differ, collectively, their rise is forcing many of Europe's established conservative parties to make a choice: either adopt some of the populist right's increasingly hard-line positions on immigration and national identity and cooperate with them, or risk losing voters to them altogether.

Message from Jim Robinson:

Dear FRiends,

We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.

If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you,

Jim

…the battle for Britain's political right…has become a debate over British identity, ethnicity and who can call themselves English… in some local areas of his constituency, "the minority white population remaining will often express discontent that the area in which they live now looks radically different to when they moved in, and people do object to that

That there, ladies and gentlemen, is why Europe will never achieve the greatness we’ve achieved in America.

America is indeed a melting pot. She always has been. Our history has been marked by imperfections in handling that pot, but we work on them. We don’t run away from them.

European nations, for the most part, are homogenized. Whites make up 82% of the UK, Germany’s white population is estimated to be from 86.3% to 93.2% (The govt doesn’t collect racial makeup data), about 92% in Italy. In contrast, America is 62% white, 19% Hispanic, 12% black, and 6% Asian.

Europeans can’t separate their national identify from race. It’s not the way how they think. Americans don’t think that way. Don’t believe me? Ask any rock fan what’s the difference between Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen, or movie fan the difference between Tom Cruise and Samuel L Jackson…race will be low on that list.

This distinctly American virtue was encapsulated perfectly in 2020 by Condoleezza Rice - not a favorite around here - who schooled a loser at CBS carrying globalist water on this topic, effectively saying the George Floyd-fueled riots are indicative of American subhumanism :

Well, I’ve always thought that America’s greatest strength is that we are a country where you can come from humble circumstances and do great things, and where, despite our painful history, we’ve worked harder and harder every day, brick by brick, to build a more perfect union for all of us. And I would say to those, particularly in places like China and Russia and Iran, who may want to use this for propaganda, let’s not be absurd.

This is not Tiananmen Square where you’ve mowed down people who disagreed with the government. This is not the invasion of Crimea where you took land from your neighbor. This is not the Green Revolution in Iran where you killed people wantonly because they wouldn’t agree with the theocratic government.

Rice continued, “And I would even say to our friends abroad, in places like Europe, where I’m seeing demonstrations in support of what is happening here, thank you for your support, but please look in the mirror. Please ask yourself, in countries in Europe and countries all across the world, what are you doing about racial and ethnic inequality in your own circumstances? America has gotten better because we have been willing to confront our problems. And we’re going to confront our problems again. We’re confronting them now.

“But I really don’t need to be lectured by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping about peaceful protest when they have themselves used their own force just because people wanted to criticize the government. That is not what is happening here,” she added.

Go pound sand, Europe.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.