The victories of Argentina’s Javier Milei, who wants to shut the central bank and replace the peso with the American dollar, and of the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders, who wants to first shut the door on illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers and hold a referendum on the Netherlands exiting European Union (EU) has raised eyebrows in the liberal democratic world, and alarm bells have begun to ring.
This is seen as the beginning of the end of globalisation. The dreaded term is ‘de-globalisation’. The right-ward move in global politics has been happening for a while now. Milei and Wilders are not the pioneers of the Right.
The retreat from liberalism, which is a form of welfare state with the government providing a helping hand to the poor and unemployed, protecting the environment and taking the crisis of climate change seriously – has been going on for a while. Liberalism also lays emphasis on increasing and integrating international cooperation into the political system.
The Trump Phenomenon
These are the very things that Milei and Wilders are opposed to. They display a certain bravado in taking the contrarian position but it is not certain that turning their back on the liberal credo will solve the problems facing either Argentina or the Netherlands.
The fact that leaders like Milei and Wilders, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have won popular mandate through a recognised electoral process, and that they do represent public opinion requires that they be taken seriously. They cannot be dismissed as political demons.
It might appear a democratic paradox because right-wing leaders are unapologetically authoritarian, and they have no time for democratic niceties like respecting the opinion of those differing from them, or opposing them. This can be called the Trump Phenomenon after former American president Donald Trump, who is the iconoclast who shatters all liberal shibboleths of tolerance and inclusivity.
Trump is hotly pursuing the 2024 presidential nomination from the Republican Party, and he has an undeniable support of a large segment of Americans. It is easy to highlight the political sins of the right-wing leaders from a liberal vantage point. But their popularity remains to be explained.
In Argentina, the three-digit inflation and rising unemployment has created a distress condition and the Peronists who have for more than a half-a-century dominated Argentinian politics were not able to stem the rapid fall of the economy. Argentina had reached an economic dead-end.
Enter Milei And Wilders
And Milei, an economist and a TV personality, stepped in to assure the people that there is a need to overhaul the system and half-measures would not help. In a desperate bid, 56 percent of the Argentinians in the presidential run-off had voted for Milei.
Similarly, the Netherlands, like the rest of Europe, is facing an economic slowdown which has created the “cost of living” crisis, and there is gloom all around. There is the added pressure of immigrants and asylum-seekers, especially from Morocco and Somalia, who happen to be Muslims.
A small country like the Netherlands, which a long time ago in history was the haven of Protestant and non-conformist refugees from other European and Catholic countries, is finding it difficult to accept the presence of non-Europeans who practise a faith other than Christianity.
And the situation has worsened because of fanatic Islamist groups from among the immigrants. And though a minority in the minority group, they loom larger on the horizon than their real size. And their stray acts of violence have spread fear and revulsion in the host country.
It was easy for leaders like Wilders to tap into the sentiment of dislike for the “other people”. In the Sunday election victory, Wilders had much less to say on the Muslim question in the Netherlands but more on the economic situation.
It would be inaccurate to paint a doomsday picture based on right-wing leaders winning an election. For example, Milei cannot have his way because the Congress is dominated by other parties which will not give a ready stamp of approval to the radical right-wing economic agenda of Milei.
Wilders’ Freedom Party has won 37 seats in a 150-member parliament, and he needs coalition partners to form a government, and the centrist parties will not go fully with Wilders’ agenda. Both Milei and Wilders have to make huge compromises to be in power. They will be able to implement only a bit of their agendas.
The Way Forward
The emergence of right-wing leaders, whether it is Donald Trump in the United States, Milei in Argentina and Wilders in the Netherlands – it is interesting that Milei and Wilders are Trump-admirers – is to be seen as a symptom of the social and economic problems facing their respective polities.
Political liberalism in its widest sense of the term needs to be rethought and there is need for course correction of sorts. The impression that minorities of all kinds are getting more than they deserve needs in economic and social terms to be corrected.
And there has to be an honest dialogue between the silent majority and the justifiably vocal minorities in the national context. And the right-wing leaders and their supporters have to recognise that economic and climate crises – they are linked to each other more than ever – need global more than national responses.
The rise of the Right is part of the democratic process and it would be wrong to declare the dark ages.
Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr is a New Delhi-based journalist. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.
SOCIAL: The fact that leaders like Milei and Wilders, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, do represent public opinion requires that they be taken seriously, writes @ParsaJr
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