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So, a couple of months ago (I think - time is a flat circle), there was a conversation and some slight complaining about how center-right parties in Europe never work with "far-right" parties, and how that's proof that the elite are against the votes, etc. and it's actually unfair the center-right aligns with the center-left instead of the far-right and there was even some talk it was somehow undemocratic.
Well, I just saw a poll about voting preference for Kamala Harris among German voters that shows something important about the underlying feelings of actual electorate-
https://x.com/ElectsWorld/status/1818288736549159376
% who would vote for Vice President Harris (D):
Grüne: 99 %
SPD: 92 %
CDU/CSU: 89 %
FDP: 85 %
BSW: 52 %
AfD: 26 %
Forsa, 26/07/24
Obviously, the SPD, Green, and AfD numbers all make sense. For those unaware, BSW is the new anti-immigrant economically left-wing party recent created by a former prominent Die Lienke member, so they're sort of cross-pressured on this, ironically.
But, the important number to show is the CDU/CSU & FDP numbers. This is why these center-right parties end up aligning w/ the center-left because on the big issues of the day, the CDU/CSU & FDP voter is closer to the SPD or Green Party than the AfD
Obviously, yes, the chances are some of that 15% in the FDP or 11% in the CDU/CSU will eventually also move to the AfD and obviously, another chunk of the voters if they actually lived in the US would end up voting for Trump the same way a lot of normal Republican's who have voted for Republican's their whole life end up voting for Trump, but this isn't a case of some Elite spitting in the face of their voters and aligning in some globalist conspiracy against the voters.
No, the voters are with the leadership for the most part on this. This isn't going to be correct for every country, but this is also why most of the center felt closer to Communist's than the former National Front in the French parliamentary elections as well. As I've said before, people want harsh immigration policies, they're just not willing to accept the rest of the right-wing culture war and lack of competence that comes with it when it comes to current far-right parties like the AfD.
If you truly think Muslim immigration is the worst problem facing Europe, then that person needs to accept LGBT rights, a massive welfare state, supporting Ukraine, and so on, and you might get somewhere.
As a dissident rightist I’d offer a different point of view.
It’s not only that center-right parties in (at least) France and Germany (in this context) never work with far-right parties; that’s just the less important half of the story. It’s that they’re willing to cooperate with any sort of left-wing extremist groups – i.e. withdrawing their candidates in the 2nd round and calling on their supporters to vote for the leftist bloc that includes those extremists, for example – in order to keep the far right in a political quarantine. Again, I’m sure there’s a lot more delicate context to this whole issue and I’m not well-versed in these political events anyway, but that appears to be the crux of the issue.
If these trends continue, and I see no reason to believe that they won’t, we’ll see situations where center-right parties enter governing coalitions with Islamic fundamentalists, Trotskyites, hard-liner Greens, Maoists, various Communists and whatnot just to maintain this political line.
This, in effect, is the mirror image of the Communist argument that imperialism/fascism is capitalism in decay i.e. that the capitalist class will sooner side with literal fascists than to cede power to their class enemies when their regime enters a crisis.
On the flip side, I think the reason there's so much appetite for shunning the AfD is because a lot of center-right voters and politicians have left and joined AfD, so what remains of the center-right has shifted to the left.
That's my guess, anyway.
I think it's a chicken and egg problem. The regime is set up to ostracize and otherwise punish anyone to the right of the center-right, which statistically means there'll only be one prominent party there, which in turn will be the only one that dissident right-wingers will gravitate to.
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It is worth noting that other right-populist parties have joined in shunning AfD. They were kicked out of the right-wing Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament (which is dominated by Marine Le Pen's RN) for being too tolerant of actual brownshirts-and-swastikas neo-Nazis.
Less obnoxious right-populist parties like the Dutch PVV are in government.
Ah.
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