Topic: Elections in Europe

[reddebs]

Not exactly elections but Jesus fucking Christ it seems the whole world is trying to take us back to the 1930s.

100yrs of relative world peace and social progression but fascist dictatorship is what some prefer.

I guess history isn't something to learn from but to aspire to!

BBC News - Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting coup

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63885028

[Red-Soldier]

Not exactly elections but Jesus fucking Christ it seems the whole world is trying to take us back to the 1930s.

100yrs of relative world peace and social progression but fascist dictatorship is what some prefer.

I guess history isn't something to learn from but to aspire to!

BBC News - Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting coup

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63885028

The global threat of the far-right is real.  Ignore it at our peril!

[dalarr]

These are apparently not your everyday Internet trolls either. Ex-soldiers and rich and "influential" amongst those apprehended.
When I was a teen in Germany we weren't necessarily afraid of the Turkish and Arabic gangs, but the neo-nazis were the ones we kept well away from. Extremely violent and dangerous people

[reddebs]

The global threat of the far-right is real.  Ignore it at our peril!

It's scarily crazy that so many seem to think living under a dictatorship is better than what they have.

Is it because socially aware politicians aren't forceful enough in getting their point across?  It certainly feels like it's the right wing that shout loudest.

[JerseyKloppite]

I do find this kind of thing bizarre. I mean I'm probably a touch naive, but how would they seriously expect dozens or even hundreds of people to overthrow a state? So they would turn up at the Parliament building and attack it, probably do something horrific and kill some senior people... and then what? They expect that all 83 million people in Germany would go "oh all right then"? That they wouldn't face an overwhelming response from the police and the military at local and national level?

It's just fucking ridiculous. Any revolution which is successful in the long term needs the support of the population. The most mainstream right-wing populist party in Germany has 30,000 members, and the millions who voted for them are unlikely to all support overthrowing the state and replacing it with a military dictatorship.

Just madness.

[Riquende]

It's scarily crazy that so many seem to think living under a dictatorship is better than what they have.

For the insiders/activists, they think their loyalty will reward them with rank or privilege under the new regime. And for the public-at-large, support can be surprisingly easy to obtain when there's a whopping drop in living standards and opportunities, especially combined with a highly-visible ruling/wealthy class hoovering up cash & resources. You don't have to go far back in time to find examples of what can happen when the attitudes of those on top towards the starving is "Let them eat cake" (and yes I know the attribution of the phrase to Marie Antoinette or the Revolution is apocryphal, but it still sums it up).

[stoa]

I do find this kind of thing bizarre. I mean I'm probably a touch naive, but how would they seriously expect dozens or even hundreds of people to overthrow a state? So they would turn up at the Parliament building and attack it, probably do something horrific and kill some senior people... and then what? They expect that all 83 million people in Germany would go "oh all right then"? That they wouldn't face an overwhelming response from the police and the military at local and national level?

It's just fucking ridiculous. Any revolution which is successful in the long term needs the support of the population. The most mainstream right-wing populist party in Germany has 30,000 members, and the millions who voted for them are unlikely to all support overthrowing the state and replacing it with a military dictatorship.

Just madness.

It's partly delusion and partly the power of the internet. On the one hand, they think they are fighting for a good cause and that clearly people will thank and support them once they overthrow the oppressors. On the other hand, this whole thing gets boosted by the new means of creating networks and bubbles on the internet making those people think that there are thousands if not millions out there who think they same as they do. And quite often the leading people of those movements take advantage of those possibilities by inflating the numbers even further.

There was the "Querdenken"-movement in Germany (or as I would call them the Coviditots) and they did get quite a large number for some of their protests last year. I think there were estimations of about 30.000 people in Berlin for one of their marches. Yet, that wasn't enough for the leading people and you had numbers of "more than a million protesters" doing the rounds on social-media in the Covidiot-groups. A number that was easily debunked afterwards with pictures of the Love Parade where there were actually millions of people around and with simple estimations like "there's not even enough space for a million people to be standing/walking there". I get that with protests you'll get different numbers from police and organisers, but the difference is usually a few thousands and not "it was more than a million and not just 30K". But of course, the charade was necessary for the Covid-people, because they wanted to make it look like it's a huge movement and they needed to keep their followers with them, because at the end of the day, they were making money off them by selling merchandise or collection donations.

[Nobby Reserve]

That they wouldn't face an overwhelming response from the police and the military at local and national level?

From experience, there'd likely be plenty of police and army who'd join them. Both attract far-right shitheads.

[Machae]

More than 80,000 Israeli protesters have rallied in Tel Aviv against plans by the new right-wing coalition government to overhaul the judiciary.

The reforms would make it easier for parliament to overturn Supreme Court rulings, among other things.

Protesters described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposed changes as an attack on democratic rule.

It follows the instalment of the most religious and hardline government in Israeli history.

Rallies were also held outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem and in the northern city of Haifa, local media reported.

One group of protesters clashed with police while attempting to block a major road, Ayalon highway, in Tel Aviv.

Critics say the reforms would cripple judicial independence, foster corruption, set back minority rights and deprive Israel's court system of credibility.

Banners referred to the new coalition led by Mr Netanyahu as a government of shame.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64279349

[RedGuy]

^ Over 130,000 in the protests this weekend, and will probably continue growing each week. Gives some hope at least.

[TSC]

Latest populist to bite the dust

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64438955

[John C]

Latest populist to bite the dust

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64438955

Excellent, even though I know nothing about the country it's heartening that the trend might finally be reversed.

[GreatEx]

Pretty half arsed populist... he conceded defeat!

[Machae]

Israel passes law protecting prime minister from removal

Israeli lawmakers have passed legislation that drastically narrows the circumstances required to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or a successor from office.

https://www.dw.com/en/israel-passes-law-protecting-prime-minister-from-removal/a-65089160

[Red-Soldier]

Israel passes law protecting prime minister from removal

Israeli lawmakers have passed legislation that drastically narrows the circumstances required to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or a successor from office.

https://www.dw.com/en/israel-passes-law-protecting-prime-minister-from-removal/a-65089160

It's pretty much an apartheid, far-right, autocracy now.

[Red-Soldier]

Israel passes law protecting prime minister from removal

Israeli lawmakers have passed legislation that drastically narrows the circumstances required to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or a successor from office.

https://www.dw.com/en/israel-passes-law-protecting-prime-minister-from-removal/a-65089160

The UK loves a right-wing despot:


Sunak hosts Netanyahu amid disquiet over Israel’s rightwing coalition

Chief rabbi calls for unity among British Jews as protests planned at visit of Israeli prime minister

Rishi Sunak will meet Benjamin Netanyahu in Downing Street on Friday, amid calls for him to do more to distance the UK from the Israeli prime minister and the extremism of his rightwing coalition government.

The chief rabbi in London, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, writing in the Jewish Chronicle, called for unity among British Jews as demonstrators prepared to gather in central London to protest at the visit.

Netanyahu is flying to Britain, leaving behind a country in turmoil and his coalition government riven by splits over whether it should defer judicial reforms that have led to 11 weeks of rallies and revealed deep fissures in Israeli society.

The Israeli prime minister will want the London talks with his UK counterpart to focus on the threat posed to world security by Iran’s nuclear programme, and his trip comes after the US revealed it has struck hit an Islamic Revolutionary Guard-linked site inside Syria as a reprisal for the killing of a US contractor at a US army base in north-east Syria.

A promise by Netanyahu on Thursday night that he was taking direct charge of the judicial reforms did little to quell the turmoil in the country as he insisted the changes were not designed to neuter the judiciary but rebalance power within Israel’s institutions.

Netanyahu’s scheduled flight to London had been pushed back to the early hours on Friday morning to allow him time to deal with the crisis.

There had been hopes that before leaving, he would announce the temporary shelving of the changes after a threatened rebellion from Yoav Gallant, his defence minister. Gallant, a former deputy chief of the armed forces, warned him that pressing ahead with the controversial reforms would weaken the Israel Defense Forces, and potentially lead to the call-up of reservists being boycotted.

Netanyahu’s trip to London, cancelled last week, was originally billed as a chance for him to set out his demand that the west support Israel if it feels necessary to take military action against Iran’s nuclear programme. Back-channel diplomatic talks have been held in Norway to urge Iran to understand the risks posed by continuing to amass stockpiles of enriched uranium at levels as high as 60%.

US administration officials continued to say that options other than economic sanctions would be considered against Tehran

But the succession of domestic protests, and spiralling violence in the West Bank, is threatening to overwhelm Netanyahu’s wider foreign policy goals. He has so far visited Germany and Italy to discuss the Iran crisis.

UK politicians called on Sunak not to roll out the red carpet for Netanyahu. The chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Alicia Kearns, warned of the risk of a third intifada, adding she was not sure that Netanyahu coming to Britain now was a wise move.

“Israel has many friends in parliament and people here are used to defending it, but we may be moving to a different place. If the constitutional conflict deepens, criticism of the Israeli government will become much more mainstream.”

She added that new Israeli government policies were causing major unease. She said: “We don’t want to see ministers suggesting that Jordan doesn’t exist, or the expansion of West Bank settlements.”

The Liberal Democrat group of MPs issued a letter to Sunak saying his invitation risks sending a signal that the UK is supportive of Israel’s actions and urging the prime minister to challenge the threat to judicial independence.

There is also deep frustration among some Arab diplomats at what they see as a British business-as-usual approach to an Israeli government they claim is different in character to any of its predecessors, a fact they feel the British are failing to acknowledge. It is being contrasted with the more robust stance being taken by the Biden administration

The anger, in part, stems from the UK signing a roadmap of friendship with Israel, marking out plans for closer bilateral ties until 2030. The document signed with Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, made no reference to a two-state solution for the Palestinian issue.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, described the roadmap and Netanyahu’s visit as a profound step backwards for the chances of peace based on a two-state outcome. The 2030 agreements, he said, “represents an abdication of the UK’s responsibilities under international law and the UK’s unique responsibility for the Palestinian issue”.

He said in the context of quickening settlement development, a spike in settler terrorism, and avowedly racist remarks being made by members of the Neyanyau’s government, the UK was “sending precisely the wrong message at the wrong time” by rewarding Israel with expanded trade technology and security ties.

The Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, who met the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, on Wednesday, has been infuriated by the claims of Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who said there was no such thing as Palestinian people. Jordan summoned the Israeli ambassador in Amman on Monday to warn him that his remarks constituted racist and extremist behaviour that violates international norms.

Safadi followed up his protests in a phone call on Thursday with the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrel, warning the Israeli government must reject “the reckless and disgusting remarks” of its finance minister. He said: “Nothing including coalition politics justifies silence on this behaviour. Appeasing such radicalism is a danger to us all.”

His remarks reflect anger that some western governments are fearful of intervening in case it destabilises Israeli politics further.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/24/sunak-hosts-netanyahu-amid-disquiet-over-israel-rightwing-coalition

[GreatEx]

Not Europe but still in "the west", my state of New South Wales resoundingly voted Labor yesterday to end 12 years of Liberal (centre right) rule, meaning the federal and all state/ territory governments except Tasmania are in Labor hands. In both the NSW and federal elections, the incumbent was ravaged by independents in their heartland pushing a progressive climate and social agenda. So the tide has well and truly turned against angry gammon populism here, hopefully Europe follows after its recent lurch to the far right.

[A Red Abroad]

Not Europe but still in "the west", my state of New South Wales resoundingly voted Labor yesterday to end 12 years of Liberal (centre right) rule, meaning the federal and all state/ territory governments except Tasmania are in Labor hands. In both the NSW and federal elections, the incumbent was ravaged by independents in their heartland pushing a progressive climate and social agenda. So the tide has well and truly turned against angry gammon populism here, hopefully Europe follows after its recent lurch to the far right.

Where in NSW are you mate?

I have a brother in Ryde (nr Sydney)

[TSC]

Not Europe but still in "the west", my state of New South Wales resoundingly voted Labor yesterday to end 12 years of Liberal (centre right) rule, meaning the federal and all state/ territory governments except Tasmania are in Labor hands. In both the NSW and federal elections, the incumbent was ravaged by independents in their heartland pushing a progressive climate and social agenda. So the tide has well and truly turned against angry gammon populism here, hopefully Europe follows after its recent lurch to the far right.

Hopefully only timing stands between UK parting ways with its populist cabal.  Although the head of the snake has been cut off, the snake still slithers until at least the next election.

[GreatEx]

It seems crazy you're stuck with this moribund shell of a government for two years. After all, you lot sacked my country's government via the gov-gen in '75, why not try it on your own damn country?

Red abroad, I'm in Sutherland Shire, about 40km south of Ryde, but I did live near that area in my late teens and early 20s.

[A Red Abroad]

It seems crazy you're stuck with this moribund shell of a government for two years. After all, you lot sacked my country's government via the gov-gen in '75, why not try it on your own damn country?

Red abroad, I'm in Sutherland Shire, about 40km south of Ryde, but I did live near that area in my late teens and early 20s.

Enjoy! 

[TSC]

Kicking off in Israel after defence minister sacked by Netanyahu, followed by resignation of Israel consular general in New York saying he can no longer serve under Netanyahu

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/politics/1679862488-thousands-throughout-israel-protest-netanyahu-s-firing-of-defense-minister

[TSC]

https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1640087754087313413?

[thaddeus]

Finnish conservative leader Petteri Orpo has won a nail-biting three-way election race, defeating Prime Minister Sanna Marin's centre left.

"We got the biggest mandate," said the leader of the National Coalition Party, after a dramatic night in which the result gradually swung away from Ms Marin's Social Democrats.

Mr Orpo secured 20.8% of the vote, ahead of the right-wing populist Finns Party and the centre left.

Flip-flopping between centre left and centre right, not much to see there.

This part is a bit worrying though as we like to believe the next generation are more liberal and open minded but the mobilisation of social media by the right could really impact on that...

The Finns [right-wing populists] underlined their success by winning more regions than any other party in mainland Finland. Riikka Purra won more votes than any other candidate and commentators highlighted her party's appeal to young voters by reaching out over social media such as TikTok.

[Iska]

we like to believe the next generation are more liberal

This has been received wisdom forever (“people start off left and get more conservative as they get older”) but are there any stats on this dynamic actually happening?  Must say I’ve changed my view since I saw figures coming out of France in particular, where new voters seem to be pretty heavily right wing.  And also to some extent British figures, which show that middle-aged voters are basically carrying left support all through their lives.  I don’t think a younger shift rightwards is showing up in the British figures yet.

Now I think that what actually happens is that society has very long trends and we’ve recently finished a long half-a-century wave of attitudes trending socially leftwards, and we’ve understandably mistaken that for a rule that young vote left and the old vote right.  But actually we might well already be a few years into a process where social attitudes get more & more conservative starting from the young and moving through the electorate over time, and this is only just starting to show up in results like this.

[Nobby Reserve]

Flip-flopping between centre left and centre right, not much to see there.

This part is a bit worrying though as we like to believe the next generation are more liberal and open minded but the mobilisation of social media by the right could really impact on that...

The Finns Party actually have generally left-of-centre economic policies.

But they're anti-immigration, anti-LGBT equality rights, anti-EU, very nationalist, pro-'Christian values' ( )

[Libertine]

Syriza got a right pasting in the Greek elections. 20 points behind the conservatives (although no majority for latter so likely another election soon).

Far bigger gap that the polls have been saying for months.





Nice to see the Yanis Varoufakis party (MeRA25) fall below the threshold though.

[Iska]

That’s amazing, it looks like not a single poll got anywhere near that result. I can’t even see an outlier among them.

I haven’t followed this one at all. Any idea how those parties split left/right on economics and on social policies respectively?

[TSC]

Far right movement apparently growing in Germany

https://news.sky.com/story/how-the-far-right-has-grown-into-the-greatest-extremist-threat-to-germanys-democracy-12906136

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-06-20/german-far-right-extremists-rise-2022

[thaddeus]

Another country taken in by undeliverable promises...

Greek elections: Mitsotakis hails conservative win as mandate for reform

...

Although many Greeks are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, voters chose to stick with the party promising lower taxes and improved public health.

...

Mr Mitsotakis said he could not promise miracles, but that New Democracy had "high goals" to transform Greece with a better public health service and education.

That old magic trick whereby the government collect less in taxes but provide better public services.  I wonder if Mitsotakis has pledged 40 new hospitals.

[GreatEx]

They save money by not spending on Woke, that's how they can afford to build hospitals with less tax revenue. I did my own research, that's how I know this.

[Riquende]

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and those that do are doomed to watch it repeated anyway I guess.

[TheShanklyGates]

Better than expected results in the Spanish general election today - the far-right Vox party lost 19 seats from its previous total and the right wing parties fell short of the number of seats needed to form a majority government that the polls had suggested they would get.

Lengthy coalition negotiations to come now - there doesn't appear to be any path to power for the right and the left will likely need to secure the backing of the Catalan seperatists to form a government - failing that, it will be back to the polls again later in the year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/23/spainish-election-conservative-party-ahead-but-unlikely-to-win-majority

[Libertine]

Amusing to see the right underperforming the expectations/polls so much.

But Spain seems so divided now, it's hard to see where a stable government comes from, even after further elections. Another triumph for polarisation.

[Indomitable_Carp]

PP (the right) have absolutely 0 chance of ever securing the backing of Catalan seperatists. Barring some kind national centre-right agreement with the centre-left to secure a coalition, which given the context of the political debate seems highly unlikely, then it basically falls to Pedro Sanchez to try and put together a wafer-thin majority coalition.

Either way it was a massive relief to see right fall short. And if the PP as the biggest party find all the other non-right parties unwilling to work with them, then they only have their own belligerant discourse and flirtation with the far-right to blame.

As for the rest of Europe (and the UK), hopefully this goes some way to demonstrating that toxic Vox-style politics and discourse is not necessarily a vote-winner.

[Nobby Reserve]

Amusing to see the right underperforming the expectations/polls so much.

But Spain seems so divided now, it's hard to see where a stable government comes from, even after further elections. Another triumph for polarisation.

The problem - not just in Spain but in many countries - is that the mainstream parties, both right and [nominally] left have no answers, beyond more of the same failed corporate-capitalist economic policies, to the sense of economic deterioration amongst an increasing proportion of people.

The [nominally] left parties promise a fairer society and better for everyone, but when they get power wealth inequality keeps rising, billionaires keep getting richer and richer and keep dodging tax, public services continue to weaken, job insecurity continues to grow. Too many people conclude "this isn't getting better" and look to the alternative.

The mainstream right-of-centre party then gets elected (usually needing the support of *less mainstream* right-wing parties) and they don't improve anything, so the floating chunk of the electorate conclude "This is actually worse! I'm switching back to the [mainstream left party]"

And round we go again.

All the while, the more nefarious and far-right elements are peddling a message of hate - blaming immigrants and ethnic minorities and lefties/wokeists and trade unions. They're championing nationalism to try to unify enough of a voting coalition. Of course, there's often other policy in the background, like deregulation, anti-union laws, etc. Look behind these parties and they're often backed by billionaires lurking in the shadows*, who have their own agendas and are just using these as disruptors and as a means to turn people away from 'the left'

Speaking of the left, they're all too often scattered, with less focus on creating a leftist economic narrative of hope and distribution, explaining how the 'capital-owning financial elites' are hoovering up an ever-growing proportion of the proceeds from total economic output and this is the main cause of increasing shittiness of people's lives. They've become obsessed with navel-gazing about social/cultural issues. As I saw it succinctly put, the left are stuck squabbling between themselves over pronouns and Palestine.



* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/11/koch-brothers-afp-action-advocacy-far-right-republicans
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/the-american-dark-money-behind-europes-far-right/
https://corporateeurope.org/en/power-lobbies/2017/07/big-tobacco-and-right-wing-us-billionaires-funding-anti-regulation-hardliners

[dutchkop]

Interesting developments in the Netherland. since the collapse of the last Rutte VVD (COnservative Lib Dem coallition.)

Big game changer is an election coalition between Dutch Labour and Greens (GroenLinks) and EU environment VP Frans Timmermans announcing he will return to Dutch politics to try and lead this new coaliation in Nov elections. the Dutch have too many coalition parties and splintered votes.. so that some of the extreme parties get into 2nd Chamber.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/20/eu-climate-chief-frans-timmermans-quits-to-run-in-dutch-elections
EU climate chief Frans Timmermans quits to run in Dutch elections
Departure of Green Deal’s ‘visionary mastermind’ was anticipated after collapse of the Netherlands’ coalition


article of collapse of Rutte coalition over immigration
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/10/mark-rutte-everyman-dutch-pm-whose-teflon-powers-finally-waned-netherlands
Mark Rutte: the everyman Dutch PM whose ‘Teflon’ powers finally waned
Netherlands’ longest-serving leader has announced he will not stand at next election after his government collapsed

13 years as Dutch MP leader - the longest ever by Minister President (Dutch = of PM)

"He also narrowly survived a no-confidence vote, as well as a parliamentary motion censuring his behaviour and accusing him of undermining public trust and “not speaking the truth” during particularly fraught coalition negotiations that year.

Rutte ultimately ran out of road, however, over his demands for a limit on family reunifications for asylum seekers, a move bitterly opposed by his coalition partners ChristenUnie, a Christian democratic party, and the centre-left Democracy 66."

Guardian Dutch news:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/netherlands


BBC NL News:https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cvenzmgywd2t

https://www.dutchnews.nl/
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/07/sylvana-simons-and-farid-azarkan-join-national-politics-exodus/
Sylvana Simons and Farid Azarkan join national politics exodus

"Two more prominent MPs are leaving politics and their party leaderships at the November election – Sylvana Simons, founder of the left-wing, equal rights party Bij1, and Farid Azarkan, one of the first MPs for Denk and current party leader.

Simons, a former television presenter, said in an email to members that she had made a “personal choice” to quit politics and that it was the result of a combination of factors, including her poor health.

Azarkan, who has been an MP since 2017, had a key role in unraveling the childcare benefit scandal alongside independent MP Pieter Omtzigt and the SP’s Renske Leijten, who is also leaving politics.


Simons’ and Azarkan’s decisions to leave national politics take the total number of party leaders standing down in November to six.

Three of the four coalition parties are quitting – Mark Rutte of the VVD, the CDA’s Wopke Hoekstra and D66’s Sigrid Kaag. "

[Libertine]

Horseshoe theory in action in the Netherlands election campaign.

The National Socialist leader attacking foreigners and calling for migration controls.

https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/08/socialist-party-leader-calls-for-fewer-foreign-workers-in-nl/

[Nobby Reserve]

In Germany, AfD pulling into clear second place (behind the German equivalent of the Tories) and set to become either the main opposition party or a governmental partner after the next German federal election. Not a one-off poll, but consistently over the last few months (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_German_federal_election)

As the last of the WW2 generation die out, so the lessons of Nazism fade...

Then again, mainstream parties have to take on some of the blame here. Like in the UK (plus most of Europe, the USA, Australia, NZ), both the mainstream right and [nominally] left parties follow the same broad economic consensus, which is centre-right (steadily weakening public services; pro-privatisation; fosters an ever expanding wealth/income gap; looks after the interests of big-business).

There's no real choice. It's either right-of-centre economics, or right-of-centre-economics-with-a-little-padding-to-slightly-ease-the-inevitable-pain-that-corporate-capitalism-always-bringes-to-the-majority

Voters begin to look to other issues to decide where to cast their votes, and the biggest party differences can be found over social/cultural/equality issues.

Sadly, there is an insularity-derived level of bigotry in most/all countries. And that's why the far-right parties who pander to that bigotry and intolerance are doing so well.

[Red-Soldier]

In Germany, AfD pulling into clear second place (behind the German equivalent of the Tories) and set to become either the main opposition party or a governmental partner after the next German federal election. Not a one-off poll, but consistently over the last few months (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_German_federal_election)

As the last of the WW2 generation die out, so the lessons of Nazism fade...

Then again, mainstream parties have to take on some of the blame here. Like in the UK (plus most of Europe, the USA, Australia, NZ), both the mainstream right and [nominally] left parties follow the same broad economic consensus, which is centre-right (steadily weakening public services; pro-privatisation; fosters an ever expanding wealth/income gap; looks after the interests of big-business).

There's no real choice. It's either right-of-centre economics, or right-of-centre-economics-with-a-little-padding-to-slightly-ease-the-inevitable-pain-that-corporate-capitalism-always-bringes-to-the-majority

Voters begin to look to other issues to decide where to cast their votes, and the biggest party differences can be found over social/cultural/equality issues.

Sadly, there is an insularity-derived level of bigotry in most/all countries. And that's why the far-right parties who pander to that bigotry and intolerance are doing so well.

I broadly agree.  We're also seeing what happens when the left, and centre/centre-left, avoid having a 'grown up' discussion about immingration.

The far right are more than happy to fill that void and use it as a weapon.

I'm wondering what countries will do, when much of Africa becomes uninhabitable...??