Europe, and the UK in particular, has this past week staved off the illiberal threat of the far right
- at least for now. In the European and local elections, despite the
general perception of widespread successes (BBC, 2014), the far right
has largely failed to deliver any complete and comprehensive victories.
That news is tinged with sadness though, by the far right's achievement
of at least limited successes in Europe through UKIP and other
nationalist groups such as Marine Le Pen's Front National in France.
However, UKIP's 'victory', with around 27 percent of the vote, is far less impressive when you consider the stats.
With the UK's eligible electorate standing at around 46 million, the 4
million who voted for UKIP, under 10 percent the total electorate, is
shown to be impressive only by comparison to the total number of voters,
standing at a lowly 15 million (34 percent).
While the
far right groups - nationalist and reactionary conservatives - have
certainly made gains, they have yet to make truly dangerous
breakthroughs. Despite excitable media coverage promising UKIP
transforming into the dominant British party (Merrick et al, 2014),
those fearful predictions have mostly failed to materialise, with
results only given a sense of emphasis by public apathy towards voting.
Yet
even in defeat and failure, the far right's propaganda remains
dangerous to those watching with an uncritical eye. Their own
supporters, though they will claim suppression and make excuses, and
claim what little victories that they can, will only be but a few fringe
extremist voices. The real danger will be amongst protest voters,
frustrated by the failure of their new movement to become a major force,
who may become a receptive audience to the far right's outcries.
The
trouble lies with the system, and it's resistance to change for better
or worse. For those who seek out radical or reactionary parties to
propel the changes they believe will fix their problems, and find their
attempts quelled and frustrated, failure brings with it the risk of
looking foolish and being embarrassed. Combined with the promises of the
far right, that is a dangerously toxic mixture. Disaffection and
simplistic reactionary solutions tend not to produce particularly
liberal outcomes.
That is a matter that needs to be
particularly addressed. The solutions of the far right are intolerance
and control. Closing borders, making criminal penalties harsher, and
imposing and enforcing the dominant culture. Liberty becomes the
privilege of a restricted few and identities are turned into chains -
whether for better or worse. Difference, like homosexuality is
suppressed and outcast; sameness, like nationalism, are championed and
enforced. Even positive celebrations of identity become burdensome under
the weight of things like patriotism, loyalty, obedience and
compliance.
As long as the mainstream political systems
and structures fail to offer solutions to, and fail to find ways to
prevent, these immense economic downturns, then simplistic and even
extreme solutions will continue to find appeal. It is no coincidence
that extremism rears its head, and sounds off the loudest, during severe
downturns, with the resulting struggles that people face.
As
ever, the non-voters find themselves to be the most important group to
take the measure of: as the real majority, understanding the causes of
their disaffection would do much to give us a real context for the
election results and to show us the real general feeling of people as a
whole.
If the the far right and their brands of
extremism and intolerance are to be warded off, the establishment has to
change. Its first and most important task will be show that there is
something in it for the disenfranchised and, if it can't demonstrate
that, adapt in order to protect our rights, liberties and hopes within a
tolerant and representative system.
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References:
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+ BBC's 'Eurosceptic 'earthquake' rocks EU elections'; 26 May 2014.
+ Jane Merrick, John Rentoul & Mark Leftly's 'European elections: Ukip set for landmark win'; in The Independent; 18 May 2014.
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