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The victory of the conservative Kiriakos Mitsotakis in the Greek legislatures was as promised as the defeat of the left, divided and dismasted. For this reason, the entry into the parliament of three radical right formations has caused a sensation. On the same Sunday, the German extreme right achieved its first victory at the polls and will lead a commonwealth of 57,000 inhabitants but, beware, national polls give it 18% of the vote, at the same level as Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s social democracy.
They are the last expressions of a clear trend: The extreme right is part of the coalitions that govern Sweden, Italy and Finland. The normalization of these formations -and of others such as the one led by Marine Le Pen in France- is a fact parallel to the preponderance in the public discourse of hardline stances on immigration. All this will comfort Vox, without a doubt.
The victory of Mitsotakis has, above all, a favorable reading to the theses of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Firstly, because of its forcefulness: 41% of votes, the same figure as in 2019. Secondly, because in Greece the one who governs the most voted list is institutionalized by law: the party with the most votes has a bonus of 50 seats. Mitsotakis’ commitment to repeat the May elections has proved him right. So he also won but he could not form a government alone because the ballot was settled by a pure proportional system. Now, with the premium of 50 seats, he adds 158 deputies out of 300.
[Mitsotakis supera su propia tragedia griega: un ‘Watergate’, los trenes y las devoluciones ilegales]
Never since the end of the “dictatorship of the colonels” in 1974 has a winner at the polls doubled the percentage of votes of the main opposition party. This is Syriza, the far-left party that has remained at 18% of the vote, two points less than in May and 13 less than 2019. The end of its leader, Alexis Tsipras, seems close.
Syriza has suffered a bleeding of votes: some have returned to Pasok (socialist, 12%), others to the list of a former dissident deputy (3.2%) and others have been lost by not overcoming the movement of the former minister Yanis Varufakis the minimum threshold of 3%. The left benches are completed with the communist deputies (7.7%).
Kyriakos Mitsotakis is the heir to a dynasty: his father Konstantinos was prime minister (1990-93) and his sister, Dora Bakoyannis, mayor of Athens and foreign minister. This pedigree does not detract from its management: GDP grew by 5.9% in 2022 and debt fell 35 points in the last two years.
In addition, Mitsotakis has been able to combine signs of openness, such as including ministers from Pasok in his government, with positions of firm against Turkey and illegal immigration. Thus, for example, he supported the port police in the shipwreck off the Peloponnese (700 missing), imposing the story that blames the organizers of the voyage in the face of doubts about the slowness of lifeguards and coast guards.
This event has not been the subject of electoral debate except for the Spartans, who have used it as an example of a supposed new migratory wave. This political formation has been the big surprise at the polls on Sunday. Unknown until 15 days ago, without its own structures, but supported from prison by Ilias Kasidiaris, spokesman for the neo-Nazi group Golden sunrise who is serving a sentence for belonging to a criminal gang. From his cell and through social networks, she has pushed the Spartans to 5%, which grants 13 deputies.
Another twelve deputies belong to Greek solution, run by a former journalist close to the Greek Orthodox Church who claims to have letters written by Jesus Christ. Complete the right end of the parliamentary arch, Niki (Victoria), an ultra-nationalist small group supported by a part of the monasteries of Mount Athos. There are ten deputies against abortion, against vaccines and pro Putin.
Migration policy in Europe
The presence of these far-right parties has peppered the news of the Greek vote, but it should not make us forget the great victory of Mitsotakis, who does not need them to govern. He has promised to follow lowering taxes and increase wages by 25% between now and 2027. He also promised to hire 10,000 toilets for the public health service and “substantially limit migratory flows”.
The tightening of immigration policy was one of the key points on the road map of the new Finnish coalition government presented ten days ago after a month and a half of negotiation. It is headed by the conservative leader and prime minister, Petteri Orpo, winner of the April elections. Seven portfolios, including that of the Interior, have corresponded to the Finns Party (formerly True Finns) led by Riikka Purra. This far-right political formation came second in the legislative elections.
Both parties already governed together between 2015 and 2017. Now, the government coalition includes two small right-wing parties. “I am proud that we have agreed on a paradigm shift in immigration policy“, declared Purra exultant. The conditions to obtain a residence permit or citizenship, as well as family reunification, are tightening.
It is curious that the leader of the swedish democrats used the same expression of “paradigm shift” when presenting the Tido agreement, negotiated in the so-called castle, between conservatives, Christian Democrats, liberals and the extreme right of the DS. The latter, although they finished second with more than 20% in the legislative elections in September 2022, honored their promise not to enter the Swedish government headed by the conservative leader Ulf Kristersson, third in the polls. (19%). The party with the most votes was the Social Democrat (30%), but it could not form a government because the right-wing bloc won three more seats than the left-wing one.
The extreme right of the DS is not, true, in the Executive. But his ideas, embodied in the 63 pages of the coalition agreement, do. Among the notable points the restrictions on access to refugee status, citizenship and family reunification. Sweden hosted 6,400 refugees in 2022; this year it will only accept 900, the mandatory quota set by the EU. The “paradigm shift”, in short.
What lies behind that is deeper, no doubt. “He rejection and fear of immigration All the countries in Europe have won, so the right-wing parties are launching themselves to respond to the requests of their constituents while those on the left are losing influence,” said specialist Marc Lazar a few days ago.
The hybridization of the rights
It is what some specialists call hybridization of the rights: the extreme right settles in the heart of the democracies, normalizing itself and, in some cases, substituting the traditional right and this one assumes its arguments.
This is what happened in Italy with the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Its normalization process is being accelerated by two factors: the vacuum left by the death of Silvio Berlusconia populist and histrionic ruler without a doubt, but who was admitted to the European People’s Party in times of Jose Maria Aznar.
The other circumstance is the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. This has led the nationalist Polish government from European ostracism for being illiberal to an essential ally and front-line player in the coalition led by the US and the UK and to which Paris and Berlin have had no choice but to reluctantly join.
That’s why the first one is important. Alternative for Germany (AfD) election victory last Sunday. His candidate prevailed in the second round of the Sonneberg district with 53% of the votes against his rival, a Christian Democrat who was supported by the rest of the forces of the entire political spectrum. It is just a drop, a commonwealth of 57,000 inhabitants in a country of 87 million. The bad thing is that in the electoral polls the extreme right is already between 18% and 20%on the same level as Chancellor Scholz’s Social Democracy, behind Christian Democracy but well ahead of liberals and environmentalists.
