Far-right politics

According to Jean-Yves Camus and Nicolas Lebourg, the modern ambiguities in the definition of the "far-right" lie in the fact that the concept is generally used by political adversaries to "disqualify and stigmatize all forms of partisan nationalism by reducing them to the historical experiments of Italian Fascism [and] German National Socialism." While the existence of such a political position is widely accepted among scholars, figures associated with the far-right rarely accept this denomination, preferring terms like "national movement" or "national right".[18] There is also debate about how appropriate the labels fascist or neo-fascist are. In the words of Mudde, "the labels Neo-Nazi and to a lesser extent neo-Fascism are now used exclusively for parties and groups that explicitly state a desire to restore the Third Reich or quote historical National Socialism as their ideological influence".[19]

Aspects of fascist ideology can be identified in the agenda of some contemporary right-wing parties, in particular the idea that superior persons should dominate society while undesirable elements should be purged—which in the case of Nazism resulted in genocide.[20] Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform in London, has distinguished between right-wing nationalist parties—which are often described as far-right such as the National Front in France—and fascism.[1] One issue is whether parties should be labelled radical or extreme,[19] a distinction that is made by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany when determining whether or not a party should be banned: an extremist party opposes liberal democracy and the constitutional order, while a radical one accepts free elections and the parliament as legitimate structures.[21] Another question is what the label "right" implies when it is applied to the extreme right, given the fact that many parties that were originally labeled right-wing extremist tended to advance neoliberal and free market agendas as late as the 1980s, but now advocate economic policies which are more traditionally associated with the left, such as anti-globalization, nationalization and protectionism. One approach, drawing on the writings of Norberto Bobbio, argues that attitudes towards political equality are what distinguish the left from the right and they therefore allow these parties to be positioned on the right of the political spectrum.

Right-wing populism, a political ideology that often combines laissez-faire capitalism, nationalism, ethnocentrism and anti-elitism, is sometimes described as far-right.[22][23] Right-wing populism often involves appeals to the "common man" and opposition to immigration.[24][1] Far-right politics sometimes involves anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are deemed inferior and undesirable.[25] Concerning the socio-cultural dimension of nationality, culture and migration, one far-right position is the view that certain ethnic, racial or religious groups should stay separate and it is based on the belief that the interests of one's own group should be prioritized.[26]

Proponents of the horseshoe theory interpretation of the left-right spectrum identify the far-left and the far-right as having more in common with each other as extremists than each of them has with moderate centrists.[27]

The current admitted divisions on the political spectrum come from the different positions held by elected representatives regarding the outcomes of the French Revolution: the democrats and proponents of universal suffrage were located on the left side of the elected Assembly, while monarchists seated farthest to the right.[18] Those who advocated a return to the absolute monarchy during the 19th century called themselves "ultra-monarchists", and embraced a "mystic" and "providentialist" vision of the world where royal dynasties were seen as the "repositories of divine will". The counter-revolutionary and the liberal camps began to transcend the borders of Europe during the first globalization (1870–1914), and a number of the ideas that currently constitute the foundation of far-right ideology—nationalism, populism, or antisemitism—were defended at that time by parts of the revolutionary left, a confusion observable in the writings of Sorel, Michels, Woltmann, or Proudhon.[28][29][30]

The word "extremist" to designate a category of the political spectrum appeared in the French public debate following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917:[lower-alpha 1] "far right" was used at that time to describe the strongest opponents of the "far left"—those who supported the events occurring in Russia.[4] A number of thinkers on the far-right nonetheless claimed an influence from an imprecisely defined idea of socialism, based on a military comradeship that rejected class analysis[lower-alpha 2]—sometimes called "socialist revisionism":[31] Charles Maurras, Benito Mussolini, Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, or Ernst Niekisch.[32][33][34] They eventually split along nationalist lines from the original communist movement, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels contradicting nationalist theories with the idea that "the working men [had] no country".[35] The main reason for that ideological confusion can be found in the consequences of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 which, according to Swiss historian Philippe Burrin, had completely redesigned the political landscape in Europe by diffusing the idea of an anti-individualistic concept of "national unity" rising above the right and left division.[34] As the concept of the masses was introduced into the political debate through industrialization and the universal suffrage, a new right-wing founded on national and social ideas began to emerge, what Zeev Sternhell called the "revolutionary right", and a foreshadowing of fascism. The rift between the left and nationalists was furthermore accentuated by the emergence of anti-militarist and anti-patriotic movements in anarchism and syndicalism, which shared even less similarities with the far-right.[35] The latter began to develop a "nationalist mysticism" entirely different from that on the left, and antisemitism turned into a credo of the far-right, marking a break from traditional "anti-Judaism" in favor of a racial and scientific notion. Various nationalist leagues began to form across Europe like the Pan-German League or the Ligue des Patriotes, with the common goal of a uniting the masses beyond social divisions.[36][37]

Spanish Falangist volunteer forces of the Blue Division entrain at San Sebastián, 1942

The Völkisch movement emerged in the late 19th century, drawing inspiration from German Romanticism and its fascination for a medieval Reich supposedly organized into a harmonious hierarchical order. Erected on the idea of "blood and soil", it was a racialist, populist, agrarian, romantic nationalist, and from the 1900s antisemitic movement.[38] They idealized the myth of an "original nation", that still could be found at their times in the rural regions of Germany, a form of "primitive democracy freely subjected to their natural elites."[33] Thinkers led by Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Alexis Carrel and Georges Vacher de Lapouge distorted Darwin's theory of evolution to advocate a "race struggle" and an hygienist vision of the world. The purity of the bio-mystical and primordial nation theorized by the Völkischen then began to be seen as corrupted by foreign elements, Jewish in particular.[38] Translated in Maurice Barrès' concept of "the earth and the dead", these ideas influenced the pre-fascist "revolutionary right" across Europe. The latter had its origin in the fin de siècle intellectual crisis and, in the words of Fritz Stern, the deep "cultural despair" of thinkers feeling uprooted within the rationalism and scientism of the modern world.[39] It was characterized by a rejection of the established social order, with revolutionary tendencies and anti-capitalist stances; a populist and plebiscitary dimension; the advocacy of violence as a means of action; and a call for individual and collective palingenesis.[40]

German political scientist Klaus von Beyme describes three historical phases in the development of far-right parties in Western Europe after World War II.[26] From 1945 to the mid-1950s, far-right parties were marginalized and their ideologies were discredited due to the recent existence and defeat of Nazism. Thus in the years immediately following World War II, the main objective of far-right parties was survival and achieving any political impact at all was largely not expected.[41] From the mid-1950s to the 1970s, the so-called "populist protest phase" emerged with sporadic electoral success. During this period, far-right parties drew to them charismatic leaders whose profound mistrust of the political establishment led to an "us-versus-them" mind set: "us" being the nation's citizenry, "them" being the politicians and bureaucrats who were then in office. Beginning in the 1980s, the electoral successes of far-right political candidates made it possible for far-right political parties to revitalize anti-immigration as a mainstream issue.[41]

As of May 2019, there is a number of political parties to the right of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia and National Party of Australia, many of a populist nature. These include Pauline Hanson's One Nation, Katter's Australian Party, Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party (created 2019), United Australia Party, the Australian Conservatives, Yellow Vest Australia (formerly Australian Liberty Alliance), the Australia First Party, The Great Australian Party, Love Australia or Leave and the Rise Up Australia Party.

In addition to the registered political parties, there is a host of nationalist, far right or neo-Nazi groups and individuals. These include the True Blue Crew, Antipodean Resistance, the Australian Defence League, National Action (Australia), the Q Society, Reclaim Australia and the Lads Society (formerly United Patriots Front).

The parties and groups enjoy varying levels of support, with membership waxing and waning and fairly frequent changes of name and allegiances.[49]

In the lead-up to the May 2019 election, extremist groups, some with members linked to far-right terrorism, have tried to present themselves as legitimate and exert influence on right-wing and far-right parties. According to Geoff Dean, counter-terrorism expert and adjunct professor at Griffith University, "There are two real camps of rightwing extremists: those of the old style that do believe in violence and those of the new style, the new radical right, who want to gain political legitimacy to...change laws to support their agenda." Kristy Campion, of Charles Sturt University, expert on far-right extremism and terrorism, says "These groups are very good at framing their messaging in such a way that it will gain popular appeal. It's not always blatantly racist...[but]...Fundamentally their ideology is anti-democratic."[49]

Many of Fraser Anning's party have links to white supremacism and some are convicted criminals. There has been attempted infiltration to the Liberal Democratic Party (a libertarian party), echoing the Lads Society's attempts to infiltrate the National Party in 2018.[49]

The far-right in Germany quickly re-organised itself after the fall of Nazi Germany and the dissolution of the Nazi Party in 1945. However, the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), founded in 1964 and the only neo-Nazi political party remaining, won their first state representations in the Saxony state election, 2004, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election, 2006 and the 2014 European Parliament election.

CasaPound rally in Naples

Silvio Berlusconi and his Forza Italia party dominated politics from 1994, and gave neo-fascism a new respectability. Caio Giulio Cesare Mussolini, great-grandson of Benito Mussolini, stood for the 2019 European Parliament election, as the member of the far-right Brothers of Italy party. The European migrant crisis has become an increasingly divisive issue in Italy.[50] Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been courting far-right voters. His Northern League Party has become an anti-immigrant, nationalist movement. Both parties are using Mussolini nostalgia to further their aims.[51]

Far-right politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1930s, with the formation of Nazi, fascist and anti-semitic movements. It went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations, being dominated in the 1960s and 1970s by self-proclaimed white nationalist organisations that opposed non-white and Asian immigration, such as the National Front (NF), the British Movement (BM) and British National Party (BNP), or the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Since the 1980s, the term has mainly been used to describe those groups, such as the English Defence League, who express the wish to preserve what they perceive to be British culture, and those who campaign against the presence of non-indigenous ethnic minorities and what they perceive to be an excessive number of asylum seekers.

The NF and the BNP have been strongly opposed to non-white immigration. They have encouraged the repatriation of ethnic minorities: the NF favours compulsory repatriation, while the BNP favours voluntary repatriation. The BNP have had a number of local councillors in some inner-city areas of East London, and towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire, such as Burnley and Keighley. East London has been the bedrock of far-right support in the UK since the 1930s, whereas BNP success in the north of England is a newer phenomenon. The only other part of the country to provide any significant level of support for such views is the West Midlands.

In the United States, the term "hard right" has been used to describe groups such as the Tea Party movement and the Patriot movement.[52][53] The term has also been used to describe ideologies such as paleoconservatism, Dominion Theology and white nationalism.[54]