Politics impact every aspect of our lives. They shape policies in our countries, impact our economy, healthcare, education, create change, and so much more. Of course, everyone has personal views on these things, and that’s why we have different political parties. Political parties stand for different things, and are a way of representing different beliefs and ideologies within our society. Citizens can therefore choose whichever political party they align with the most based on what the politician is advocating for and values. This allows for most viewpoints to be heard and considered during elections.  

Global trends

Within the past year, there has been concern across the world that the far right has been on the rise globally. Extremists of any political party are not good for several reasons. Additionally, in this case, it is extremists of the same political party that are increasing around the world. Recently, right-wing extremism has evolved and started to spread even more with the use of social media, causing it to be an issue at the moment. This is greatly due to people being more open on online platforms and can share their beliefs to people all over the world. 

Firstly, the far right has been very on the rise in Europe. “That it seems normal is all the more terrifying”, according to the Guardian. The main concern was that the ideologies of the extreme conservatives were no longer viewed to be as outrageous and they were being normalized in these countries. In the Netherlands, Wilder’s extreme anti-immigrant party won a shocking election. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni is leading a hard-right government that is even associated with having movements that would bring back Italian facism. In other eastern countries like Hungary and Poland, there has also been a rise in this type of governance. In addition to Europe, Javier Milei’s win in Argentina was also very unexpected and showed this shift in Latin America as well. 

This issue became more apparent in Canada when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lost Toronto- St-Paul’s seat in Canada’s House of Commons on June 24, 2024. This was a shock since this seat has been liberal for the past three decades (since 1993). This shocked both Trudeau and Canadian citizens and caused commotion in the liberal party. It indicated that the election is not looking good for the Liberal party. “Losing in Canada’s largest city, a traditional Liberal stronghold, does not bode well for Trudeau ahead of the election expected in the fall of 2025”, according to ABC News. 

In addition, up until a couple days ago, the predictions and polls were all showing that a far right extremist was going to win the elections in France. A CNN article said that, “On Place de la Republique in Paris news of the projected results was met with rapturous applause and fireworks as people embraced one another, breathing a collective sigh of relief: in their eyes, France had been pulled back from the brink.” The liberal party has made a big and surprising comeback, considering everyone had basically accepted they were going to have a conservative extremist leader leading their country. 

Why is this a concern?

With these trends, the reason why there is so much concern among the population is due to many reasons. The first concern is an economic one, which includes unemployment, stagnation and an increase in inequality. Populist leaders tend to negatively affect these factors in the economy and blame immigrants or other international institutions. This leads me to the next point about how many of these leaders are also very strict with their immigration policies. These right wing parties express their concerns about how immigrants or refugees will create more job competition, may affect the security and could change the culture in their countries. This is a concern because if all countries turn to having these strict and strong beliefs, this can lead to increased tensions across countries, countries may isolate themselves, and there could be more discrimination and racism attached as well.

Another big concern with these trends is the environment. Conservative parties tend to look at short-term economic concerns in their country as opposed to long-term sustainable goals. As we know, there are severe environmental problems within our world at the moment that may not be seen on a day to day basis, but will definitely hurt us sooner rather than later and something needs to be done as soon as possible. These conservative governments overlook this environmental problem, so if all countries started overlooking this big issue, the Earth would be in big trouble. 

Lastly, there have been violent incidents that have been linked to far-right extremists. In New Zealand, a right-wing terrorist killed over 50 people at the Christchurch mosque. Jacinda Arden, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, announced that “there is no question that ideas and language of division and hate have existed for decades, but their form of distribution, the tools of organization—they are new.” She believes that we need to repair the divides, need more equality within societies and gain that respect back within humanity. Jacinda thinks that this is all due to the spread of right-wing extremism within our world. 

To conclude, the far-right parties are on the rise globally and this is an issue for many different reasons, as discussed. As we continue to see the rise of far-right conservative parties around the world, the more of an issue this becomes. There would be a big tear in democratic norms, there would be an increase in social and political polarization, there would be big economic and environmental impacts, and many more. It is essential for the world to have different political parties. This creates for broader representations and perspectives, for minority voices to be heard, creates a healthier competition so that we can see some of the benefits that are coming out of other countries and some of their weaknesses. When a political party is held responsible for an issue, countries can learn from one another, in the same way that they can also learn from each other in positive ways. The key to addressing this rise in right-wing extremism is first addressing that there is disinformation on social media, websites, and other platforms. People need to create their own beliefs on their own and can not listen and think everything they see on the internet is true. 

For further reading:

1. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/canadas-liberals-suffer-major-upset-toronto-special-election-111398824 
2. https://thewire.in/world/the-right-wing-is-on-the-rise-globally
3. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/07/europe/france-election-results-gamble-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html
4. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/31/across-europe-the-far-right-is-rising-that-it-seems-normal-is-all-the-more-terrifying 
5. https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/15/far-right-extremism-global-problem-worldwide-solutions/ 
6. https://www.axios.com/2023/09/18/trump-global-right-2024-election 
7. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/europe/france-far-right-brink-of-power-what-next-intl/index.html 
8. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-26/why-liberals-loss-in-canada-election-was-such-a-blow-for-justin-trudeau?embedded-checkout=true
9. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3gg0d122qvo
10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/09/europe-elections-right-wing-far-illiberal-politics/