The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has topped a nationwide opinion poll. Meanwhile, Kenyan athletes won both the men's and women's races at the Berlin Marathon. DW has the latest from Germany.
I keep saying it again and again, but this is the future of European politics. The “progressive” brand of politics that was very pro-immigration in the 2000s and 2010s is dead. The establishment parties that are choosing to cling to it are going to get burned by this gamble.
The reality is that Western Europe handled immigration horribly and there are real issues and people are facing real consequences. The reasonable course of action to address these issues and try to resolve them. However, establishment parties simply refuse to do anything. They either pretend these issues don’t exist or that they’re not that bad, and then blame any criticism of these issues or policies as racists. It is a stupid and elitist approach that is leading people to seek out alternatives.
What’s the alternative? It’s these far right parties, they’re the only ones who address the issues of immigration and want to do something about them. The polls regularly show that these far right parties are entirely fueled by anti-immigration sentiment. That is why people flock to them and why they’re relevant. Their prominence in European politics sends a loud statement as to the failures of the establishment parties. They’re so incompetent and out of touch, that they’re being bested by foreign funded grifter parties that offer worse policies and more extreme rhetoric.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. These far right parties are only inevitable if the establishment parties double down on their mistakes. But what if they don’t do that? What if they wise up and adapt to the current political climate, what would happen? Well there is a country who’s establishment parties did this, and that’s Denmark. It is the only Western European country where it’s establishment left wing parties figured out the secret formula. They kept the popular economic and social policies, but also adopted a reasonable anti-immigration platform to match the will of the people, and guess what? It worked, Denmark doesn’t have a far right party surging in the polls. They kept what worked, and fixed what didn’t, thus leading them to neutralize the far right. This is the model that the rest of Europe is going to find itself adopting sooner or later.
I keep saying it again and again, but this is the future of European politics. The “progressive” brand of politics that was very pro-immigration in the 2000s and 2010s is dead. The establishment parties that are choosing to cling to it are going to get burned by this gamble.
The reality is that Western Europe handled immigration horribly and there are real issues and people are facing real consequences. The reasonable course of action to address these issues and try to resolve them. However, establishment parties simply refuse to do anything. They either pretend these issues don’t exist or that they’re not that bad, and then blame any criticism of these issues or policies as racists. It is a stupid and elitist approach that is leading people to seek out alternatives.
What’s the alternative? It’s these far right parties, they’re the only ones who address the issues of immigration and want to do something about them. The polls regularly show that these far right parties are entirely fueled by anti-immigration sentiment. That is why people flock to them and why they’re relevant. Their prominence in European politics sends a loud statement as to the failures of the establishment parties. They’re so incompetent and out of touch, that they’re being bested by foreign funded grifter parties that offer worse policies and more extreme rhetoric.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. These far right parties are only inevitable if the establishment parties double down on their mistakes. But what if they don’t do that? What if they wise up and adapt to the current political climate, what would happen? Well there is a country who’s establishment parties did this, and that’s Denmark. It is the only Western European country where it’s establishment left wing parties figured out the secret formula. They kept the popular economic and social policies, but also adopted a reasonable anti-immigration platform to match the will of the people, and guess what? It worked, Denmark doesn’t have a far right party surging in the polls. They kept what worked, and fixed what didn’t, thus leading them to neutralize the far right. This is the model that the rest of Europe is going to find itself adopting sooner or later.