After the European elections and Parliament’s elections in France a couple of weeks later, a sigh of relief could be heard on the continent. The far right had not won, or at least they did not win enough to come to power. With the elections in the UK, all went as expected, that is, the Conservatives lost and Labour gained a huge majority with which to govern in the coming years. It does not mean however that all threats are gone.

In the European Parliament, there are now two big and one small political group of the far right with a total of 187 members, that is more than one in 4 members of the EP. This is not enough to hinder the majority of the other groups, but enough to gain some influential political functions in the institution.

As for the French elections, the left came out as largest political family, the Rassemblement National only as third biggest party, but they have more seats than ever, 143. As for the UK, the electoral system is made in such a way that it is difficult to make an end to the hegemony of the two biggest parties, but it should be known that Farage’s Reform UK party got 5 members of parliament with a total of 14,3 % of the votes. It was the biggest winner!

In other words, the success of the far right is not stopped. Add to this the three countries of the European Union where it is already in power—Italy, Hungary, and Slovakia—and the many countries where they have a more than marginal representation in the parliament. The sigh of relief was very understandable, but it may not last for a long time.

World wide successes

Europe is obviously not the only place in the world where openly far right parties are politically active or already in power. We had Donald Trump in the United States who was a real threat to democracy when he refused to accept the election results in 2020. He might be back in 2025. We had Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who also remains very active in the country’s political life, with his followers.

We now have Javier Milei in Argentina, an anarcho-capitalist with very close ties to major far right parties and groups. There is Narendra Modi in India, with less power than a couple of years ago, but still a threat to democracy.

In Venezuela, whatever the accepted final results of the last elections are, it is clear that the opposition to Nicolas Maduro was supported by far right groups in the U.S. and Chile and that all actions immediately after July 28th were carefully prepared. An announcement was even made before the elections that no success of President Maduro would be accepted.

For Bangladesh, there is yet no clarity at all on how the regime change will evolve and who will take power, but there is a risk it might be an Islamist party. In that case, it would be a very sad result of the success of people’s power, followed by a government that might limit all freedoms. The same happened after the Arab spring in Tunisia and Egypt. In Israel, a far right government is doing everything it can to prolong the war in Gaza, killing thousands and thousands of Palestinians.

What makes all these political parties and groups so dangerous is not only their threats to democracy—they are very dynamic and very well organised internationally. They gather at global level and meet regularly. There is a strong coordination and mutual support between them in spite of their many ideological differences. Of course we should reflect very carefully on what it means when Donald Trump says ‘these might be the last elections in which you can vote’, but there is much more to democracy than an election.

The real threats concern all other elements that make for a democratic society such as all social movements, trade unions, cultural events, youth organisations, and sectoral gatherings. Time and again, in the past, we have seen how far right governments have limited their freedom of association and action. What can be seen right now in Italy with prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is that she is very accommodating for everything concerning European policies, but has a totally different line of action in Italy itself, where, for instance, abortion is not forbidden, but where anti-abortion groups will have access to abortion clinics with their propaganda. In almost all cases where the far right has come to power, the first victims are the trade unions and economic and social rights, such as the right to strike.

Too often, we forget all these indirect consequences for ‘democracy’ in a very large meaning. It goes way beyond the right to vote. It concerns, in the first place, the organisation of juridical power—the composition of a supreme court for instance. Some fear that if Donald Trump becomes President again, he might make more nominations for the Supreme Court making it totally conservative, at least till 2040 and even beyond, depending on the age of the new nominees.

Other consequences concern abortion, acceptance of gender equality, gay rights and their right to marry, and most of all the whole issue of migration and asylum. What happened in England beginning of August is particularly worrying. Mosques and houses for migrants were attacked and burnt while the only reaction heard from the government is one of repression.

It should be clear by now that even if we can blame far right groups and parties to provoke social unrest, this is only possible if people have good reasons for this unrest and for the violence that goes with it. Here, economic and social rights come back in. People are made to believe that migrants and asylum seekers have certain ‘privileges’, are getting allowances to which they themselves have no access to, so that migrants are, all in all, better off.

Social conditions in the UK have worsened a lot these last decades. Too many people have no access to health care because waiting lines are far too long, social rights are conditioned, the purchase power of wages has gone down. The future looks far from bright. It is only in these circumstances that the far right can have success, because they need bad social conditions to spread their lies and their so-called reasons for fear, violence, and social unrest. They are dangerous, not only because of their potential violence, but also because the failed neoliberal project needs them to maintain ‘social order’.

Politics

All people, at all times and everywhere, need protection. In the U.S., people think they need a gun to protect themselves. In neoliberal societies, people are made to believe protection can only be provided by markets and market participation—that will create incomes and a possibility to buy an insurance on the market against illness, unemployment, and even natural catastrophes. In that logic, social assurances provided by welfare states should disappear, except for help at subsistence level for the poor.

Economic and social rights, however, including the right to social security, is a human right that still provides the best and surest protection of all. In countries where such a social security still exists, it is mostly paid for by workers themselves—their organisations are co-owners of the system which gives them a lot of power. When these systems were introduced at the end of the 19th century or beginning of the 20th, this collective ownership was even seen as a condition for citizenship. Political rights were in the hands of owners of assets, and since workers did not have any, they had no right to vote. It is the introduction of collective funds for the protection of workers that gave them too the right to vote.

These basic elements of what social security is and what a welfare state is with insurances, public services, and rights, are too often forgotten. They offer the best protection people can have. Nowadays, in too many cases, they are slowly dismantled and create huge masses of vulnerable people—especially youth. These are the people that fall victim to the far right—people who believe the false promises of protection with closed borders and hard repression.

What is needed, then, is social justice, social policies to really protect all people. What is also needed are politicians that understand the demands of people at the local level. People have a voice, but no one listens. Politicians should care for people and reconnect with them where they live, in their cities and municipalities, they should take care of schools and health care units, of sports facilities, of culture houses, of spaces where people can meet and talk and learn from each other.

Causes and consequences of the far right are precisely there, at the local level. What should be promoted is a cooperation between national government and municipalities, with civil society in between so that people can be effectively protected against the vagaries of life and of markets as well as against the lies and traps of the far right.

Progressive parties and groups should learn to coordinate their actions, learn to cooperate, preserving their identity, surely, but also looking for common ground on which to act and organise. The far right can only be overcome and democracy can only be preserved with a strong coordination of public authorities and civil society.