Europe sees conservative trend as Italy elects right-wing prime minister
Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Amy Kellogg reports on the conservative wave sweeping through European nations and touches on concerns the center-left has in its wake.
Recent elections in Sweden and Italy have returned rightist, populist, nationalist, and conservative majorities. There are other similar governments in Europe. Can working with them be in America’s national interest?
For some the answer is no. Led by The New York Times, much of the mass media howled, you guessed it, "fascism!" and even "Nazism!".
There is some truth to it. In Sweden socialism has always been nationalistic, intended for the Swedes only until recent waves of migrations from abroad.
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A broad consensus persisted on many issues among between all Swedish socialist orientations. For example, implemented in the 1920s, the official policy of eugenics targeting "social misfits" and minorities, continued into the 1970s under Social Democrats, who have dominated politics after 1945.
The leader of the Sweden Democrats Jimmie Åkesson delivers a speech at the party's election watch at Elite Hotel Marina Tower Tower in Nacka, near Stockholm, Sweden, early Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. (Maja Suslin/TT News Agency via AP)
A few neo-Nazis were the first loudly to object to unbridled emigration and helped found Sweden Democrats. Eventually, the party got rid of them. It is now mainstream as the largest part of the center-right coalition which won the elections.
Likewise, in Italy some in the three-party winning coalition can trace their origins to the post-war, post-fascist Italian Social Movement. At the same time, surveys show that, rather than the party program, the voters overwhelmingly chose the coalition’s charismatic leader, Giorgia Meloni.
These shifts could be in America’s interest, but it depends: some European rightist players are as anti-American just as left-wing actors are. Some rightists openly prefer Russia for they blame America for the spread of "imperialism," "forever wars," "predatory capitalism," and "lifestyle revolutions," including identity politics and so forth.
These Europeans sound pretty much like many of their MAGA counterparts at home. In Italy and elsewhere, most of them are regular folks, rather than the elites, who tend to vote left.
Whom should we choose to serve our national interest best?
Unfortunately, Americans cannot agree among themselves what our national interest actually is. However, if we bring back Ronald Reagan’s platform of freedom, democracy, faith, patriotism, tradition, family, and peace through strength in tandem with our European allies, then, definitely, we can use more of the like-minded across the pond.
In putting together a pro-American, right-wing coalition, we would have to make wise choices predicated on, first, the knowledge of history, and second, the recent track record of our perspective rightist partners on the Old Continent.
In the 1980s late General John Singlaub aided by Herbert Romerstein purged the American anti-Communist movement of neo-Nazis and their sympathizers. We must expect our prospective European right-wing allies to do the same in their ranks, if they have not done so.
Bringing back the Ronald Reagan platform of freedom and democracy is a great opportunity for American conservatives to find like-minded allies in Europe. FILE: Pres. Ronald Reagan walking; giving thumbs up gesture on S. Lawn. (Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images)
We must also remember that the past lingers and wafts over the Old Continent to a greater extent than over here. So, we must be very vigilant about not associating with anyone carelessly.
At the same time, we must keep in mind that most of those who would like now to work with us are interested in the present and the future and, further, have made a strategic decision to disinvest themselves of ugly history to be compatible with the United States.
America fought both German dictator Adolf Hitler and Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, in sequence. Most Europeans (except the Brits) hardly resisted the Nazis and many sided with Berlin against Moscow. The shadow of institutional collaboration hangs over them.
In Europe, Poland alone had the dubious distinction of counting the Third Reich and the Soviet Union as mortal enemies simultaneously. By refusing to yield to Hitler’s anti-Communist wooing, only Poland was fully crushed and subsequently, not asked to form a collaborationist, pro-Nazi government.
Poland fought on: at home and abroad. Now it counts among America’s staunchest allies, in particular under its current Law and Justice government. So do the British.
Britain’s Brexit executed by the Conservative Party in the name of sovereignty was in our interest. London is very keen on maintaining its special relationship with D.C. A codicil is that by leaving the EU, the Brits left the Poles behind in the European Parliament as America’s sole lobby.
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Hungary is a mixed bag, navigating among various options, including China and Russia, while remaining in NATO and the EU. Beloved by MAGA, Budapest always considers its interests first before anything else. So, the U.S. remains wary of the Magyars.
Sweden has just applied to join NATO, and thus it has definitely moved closer to the U.S.
In domestic policy, the new Italian winning coalition sounds like MAGA. Meloni’s fighting words were: "Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby! Yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology!"
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In foreign policy, prime minister designate Meloni is rather hostile both to China and Russia, even when some of her coalition allies have a rather warm view of Moscow and Bejing.
The Italian coalition’s animus is not anti-American, but primarily anti-EU. Like in most places, anti-Americanism is moderated again by the membership in NATO. However, membership in the EU does not translate into Europhilia and any love lost toward Brussels, which reciprocates in kind.
There is an opening in Europe for the U.S. However, it will take more finesse than President Joe Biden may be capable of.
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