Right-Wing Parties Are Selling Out Across Europe, Too
As in the US, formerly mainstream conservative politicians are becoming dangerously comfortable with breaches of democratic norms.
Meloni could be Italy’s first far-right leader since Mussolini.
Photographer: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images
On Sept. 1 in Philadelphia, US President Joe Biden warned Americans against authoritarian-minded Republicans. Strangely, a great many liberals as well as conservatives criticized Biden for being “divisive.” His speech actually came too late: Biden should have inaugurated his presidency with a clear description of the global threats to democracy.
Indeed, the radicalization of an increasingly Trumpified GOP should alert us to a still patchily reported and under-analyzed phenomenon: Many formerly respectable right-wing parties outside of the United States are also breaking bad.