By Antonis Anzoletou

Signs of the times are the prevalence and rise of far-right formations in many European countries. And developments in Greece show that the Spartans, who were fully revealed, are here to stay. “By heart Spartans from within Ilias Kasidiaris”, could be heard in the corridors of the Parliament yesterday.

Was it the “mantle” in order for a neo-fascist formation like Golden Dawn to find itself in the Parliament again? Most of them, however, it is estimated that most of their voters did not make a choice of the moment, but found again their political shelter that they lost with the dissolution of the party of Nikos Michaloliakos in 2019.

There are many reasons why at Old Epirus the extreme right has prevailed and developed its forces. In extreme form in some cases to less extreme in others. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the precision from the inflationary crisis and above all the refugee crisis have launched the Eurosceptic forces.

The pandemic and the conspiracy theories that developed played a major role. The elections that will take place in June, in which the EU member states will be called upon to elect their representatives in Brussels, are particularly critical. Not for the People’s party’s first place, which is not expected to be contested, nor for the second place that everything shows that the Social Democrats will win. The extreme right is showing its “teeth” in a number of states, making it clear once again that crises provide fertile ground for the extremes to exploit every aspect of populism.

THE National Alert in France, the Forum for Democracy in the Netherlands, the Freedom party in Austria, the Alternative for Germany, the Northern League in Italy, and the corresponding forces in Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland, as well as the Swedish democrats have “grafted” the people them with a feeling of insecurity towards the European edifice. Not even Spain is left out of the picture, as Vox emerged as the third party and no one can say that it did not do well.

It looks like dominoes, but it is a fact that fascist formations occupy positions of central power more and more often, even if they cooperate. A more characteristic example of Georgia Meloni which has taken over from Marine Le Pen and is now the leading form of the extreme right in Europe. However, the feeling of self-preservation, in a country that changes prime ministers “with a spoon”, has led it to make the shift in some things still in immigration. In France, the president of the National Alarm is still on the ramparts and will patiently try to capitalize on the anger of her countrymen in the 2027 presidential elections.

Recently, university professors from several countries have documented the far-right forces in the old continent. They are a nebula of groups with different nuances, but they are united and nurtured by common nationalist concepts. In the 80s, these forces did not garner more than 4% of the vote.

They rose to 8% between 2007 and 2010 and continued to jump with the migration crisis of 2015. Since a significant part of the middle class has disappeared there are not a few who want to punish the rulers and use the far right as a means. If until recently Europeans could claim to have strongly resisted the unexpected wave of populism of Donald Trump, who became president in the USA, now they are simply going with the flow. After all, the former American president is also struggling to become the leader of the planet again.

In about nine months the 720 seats of the European Parliament will have new owners and the available data do not lend themselves to optimistic predictions.