Judy Asks: Can the Far Right in Europe Be Contained?

Blanca Garcés, Senior Research Fellow at CIDOB, answers Judy Dempsey’s question in her blog Strategic Europe: ‘Can the far right be contained?’. “We know that when mainstream parties assume far-right postulates, they automatically validate them and by so doing give them wings in electoral processes. The response should be not only to contest their assumptions but particularly to offer an alternative political project and a credible future”, according to Garcés. For this, “we need a state that reassumes its redistributive function and ensures social justice and equal access to common goods”. Finally, Garcés highlights that “in recent years, fear of the extreme right is used to justify many policy responses. But fear is never a good advisor. Because of all these fears, Europe runs the risk of giving up its most fundamental principles, which would represent yet another victory for the far right”.