Far-right parties are normalizing and adapting mainstream issues while remaining radical on others, posing ongoing democratic threats.
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The recent cross-party voting alignment between center-right and far-right groups in the European Parliament has sparked debate across Europe, though it is not unprecedented. Some countries already lack a strict separation between traditional and far-right parties. Furthermore, similar coordinations have occurred multiple times before in the European Parliament, and political negotiation cultures in multi-party systems sometimes see the far-right driving cooperation. The blurring lines between mainstream and far-right politics—seen in shared stances on anti-Islam sentiment, migration, and environmental issues—suggest that maintaining a clear distance from the far-right is increasingly difficult. While some far-right figures have adopted more polished public personas, they still need to appeal to demands for even more radical solutions than the mainstream offers. Even as mainstream parties adopt some far-right rhetoric, the far-right tends to push further extremes on other issues like xenophobia or climate change. Despite broader threats such as Russian imperialism and economic inequality, the normalization of extremism, undermining the rule of law, and promoting conspiracy theories remain significant dangers associated with the far-right. The article concludes that while comparing political measures is useful, the focus should be on defining concrete actions to maintain distance from the far-right, drawing lessons from various European experiences.
