AKEL Political Bureau member and Parliamentary Representative Giorgos Loukaides on the rise of the far-right movements in Europe in the PACE debate

 

12 September 2023

Today in the Political Affairs and Democracy Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), we discussed the dangerous rise of far-right movements in Europe.

During my intervention, reference was made to the alarming rise of the racist and fascist far-right in Europe, as well as the serious dangers and negative consequences this entails for human rights and democracy.

Two issues are a prerequisite for an effective response to this dangerous phenomenon:

First, combating the causes that generate, facilitate and/or enable the penetration of racist far-right rhetoric. In other words, the acute and growing social inequalities both within and between member states.

On the one hand, the far-right exploits the marginalisation of large sections of the population and the social devaluation of the political system. On the other hand, the continuing migratory and refugee flows entering Europe are precisely the result of these inequalities and the plundering of the resources of the countries of the South, but also of military interventions and interferences against third countries, in violation of international law.

Secondly, the decisive combating of the far right is demanded, in a consistent and continuous manner, primarily by political means, through the political and social isolation of fascist-racist movements and the exposure of the inhuman-repulsive character of their ideology and rhetoric. Cooperation with it and, more generally, the ‘normalisation’ of the far-right as supposedly representing ‘another voice” in democracy rather than a voice against democracy, has in practice proved to contribute to it’s further strengthening.

We must not only move from words to actions in the effort to tackle the far-right, but also put an end to any actions that seek to ‘normalise’ it or, worse still, to the adoption of its racist rhetoric by traditional parties.

It is the duty of all democratic forces and citizens to realise that the normalisation of racism-fascism is a ticking time bomb in the foundations of democracy.