The Washington Post began its report on this weekend’s EU parliament elections with this:
Early forecasts in the European Parliament elections on Sunday showed voters punishing ruling centrists and throwing support behind far-right parties. . . .
The article goes on to use the term “far right” nearly 20 times. But the Post never tells us what it means by a “far-right party.”
I’ll try to identify the views that unify these parties in a moment. But first, I want to state my objection to the widely-adopted version of the political spectrum that places these parties on the right.
That version puts communists on the far left and fascists on the far right. Liberals belong left of center in this spectrum, but in the telling of organs like the Post, they occupy the middle. Traditional American conservatives are on the right, but not the far right. MAGA is on the far right.
In my view, it’s ridiculous to place communists and fascists on opposite ends of the spectrum. Their similarities — especially their quest for control over people’s lives — make them cousins. Hard-core socialists also belong on the far left, as I see it.
In a more sensible political spectrum, hard-core libertarians would occupy the opposite end from communists. Communists want the government to control our lives. Hard-core libertarians want the government out of our lives.
But let’s put this aside, accept the general view that fascists are on the far right, and try to figure out what the Europeans parties the Post considers far-right have in common and whether, even using the Post’s spectrum, it makes sense to lump them together as “far right.”
The most obvious thing the parties in question have in common is the desire to curb immigration. There’s nothing fascistic about this. Is there something “far right” about it?
I don’t think so. Until recently, the American left, including Bernie Sanders, disfavored the large influx of immigrants because of its effect on American workers. Indeed, as David Leonhardt says, it’s part of the progressive tradition to support tough border security because unchecked immigration can destabilize society and increase inequality.
I’ll grant that deporting millions of illegal immigrants could be considered a far-right policy under the widespread view of the political spectrum (under my version, it would be far left). But the “far right” hasn’t implemented a program like that in any nation where it has held power. Donald Trump didn’t try to do this when he was president.
Italy, which is run by a party the Post deems far right, deported fewer than 3,000 immigrants in 2023. That was only about one-fifth the number deported by France under Macron. America under Joe Biden has deported many more per-year than both France and Italy. No one labels Macron or Biden “far right.”
Another common stance among allegedly far-right parties in EU nations is “nationalism.” Those applying this label rarely define it.
To me, nationalism means the view that a nation’s policies should be based primarily on what’s good for that country, not what’s good for some larger “community.” If there’s a clash between what best serves the nation’s interests and what complies with a “global test,” the global test should not control.
Are these far right tenets? Not in my opinion.
Until the election of Barack Obama, I believe every American president met my definition of a nationalist. I’m not even sure Obama and Biden would publicly advocate the non-nationalist — the internationalist — position.
During the 2004 election, John Kerry invoked the “global test” during a debate with George Bush — to Kerry’s detriment. It may be a while before any major presidential candidate adopts a non-nationalist position.
Euro-skepticism is another position that’s common to parties labeled far right. Such skepticism is a manifestation of nationalism. Euro-skeptics don’t want to subordinate the interests of their country to the supposed interests of Europe.
I don’t consider this a far-right position for the same reason that nationalism isn’t. I’ll also note that a majority of the British voting public opted to leave the EU. Are most Brits far right?
There’s a reason why the Post’s article on the recent EU elections didn’t bother to say what “far right” means. That reason, I think, is this: the far right label conjures up visions of fascism.
By contrast, if one identifies the positions far-right parties hold in common, one sees nothing of fascism in them. One can favor mass immigration, but there’s nothing fascistic about opposing it. One can favor subordinating the interests of one’s country to a “global test” or a multi-nation body. There’s nothing fascistic about opposing that vision.
The truth, if the Post ever wanted to explore it, is that there’s wide variation among so-called far-right European parties. This is obvious just from comparing two countries controlled by parties said to be far right — Hungary and Italy.
Hungary under Viktor Orban isn’t a fascist state, but it is an “illiberal” one. Orban has tilted the media playing field in favor of his party and government. Several private media outlets have been shut down or taken over by government-friendly owners.
Meloni has appointed loyalists to some top jobs at state broadcast outlets, but has not shut down private outlets or caused them to be taken over by her allies.
Orban's government has cracked down on some non-governmental organizations and tightened controls over academic institutions. Nothing like this has happened, or been attempted, in Italy.
Under Orban, businessmen close to his party have acquired large chunks of companies in these strategic sectors — banking, media, and energy. The government is now thought to be the majority owner in each sector.
Nothing like this has happened, or been attempted, in Italy.
Orban is a friend of Putin’s and has opposed efforts to help Ukraine turn back Russia’s invasion. Italy’s prime minister, Georgia Meloni, is a staunch supporter of aiding Ukraine. In fact, earlier this year it was Meloni’s charm offensive that finally broke down Orban’s resistance to the EU sending 50 billion euros worth of military aid to Ukraine.
A grateful Joe Biden declared that he and Meloni have “each other’s backs”. He’s never going to make a statement like that about Orban.
The differences between Orban’s party and Meloni’s are emblematic of differences among “right-wing” parties throughout Europe. A good newspaper would explore those differences. A so-so newspaper would at least acknowledge them.
The Washington Post does neither.
How many times do we have to do this? The Washington Post is not a newspaper. A newspaper even if it has an editorial bias attempts to report the news based on a semblance of reality. The Washington Post like the NY Times is a leftist propaganda outlet. All printed material will be filtered through not bias bit a specific agenda to promote a leftist view of reality that is often at odds with actual reality. The people have caught on. It's why the Post is going bankrupt. "Far Right" is the narrative term for Europeans who don't want a hard leftist agenda imposed on them from Brussels and don't want their countries given over to Islam.
Great post. And when's the last time the MSM called a leftist group. no matter how far out there, as the far left Jim Dueholm