Musk, Kickl, Farage, and the rest

With Elon Musk’s attack on safeguarding minister Jess Phillips as a “race genocide apologist” and call to jail her, the far right is on a roll internationally.

South Korea’s right-wing president refused to step down after his failed coup. Georgia has a new right-wing president after a rigged 26 October election. In Austria, Herbert Kickl, the “ultra” leader of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, has a mandate to form a government.

In Germany, the far-right AfD will do well in 23 February elections. In Romania, far-rightist Calin Georgescu won the presidential first round in November. The result was annulled; a new vote is due in April.

In France, long-time fascist leader Jean-Marie Le Pen died, aged 96, on 7 January. His party, now with a new profile as Rassemblement National and led by his daughter Marine Le Pen, scores 38% in opinion polls, way ahead of all others, for the next French presidential election, which is scheduled for 2027 but may be earlier.

Musk attacked Phillips for not calling a new national inquiry into child abuse. Alexis Jay, who led the last such inquiry, rebuffed Musk. Jay’s inquiry reported in 2022, and the Tory government largely ignored it. Better to implement its recommendations than to do another inquiry.

Health minister Wes Streeting has promised implementation. Socialists want action on the social conditions which can feed child abuse — poverty, lack of social provision, social atomisation. Not Musk’s bigotry!

Nigel Farage of the Reform Party dissociated from Musk when Musk backed Tommy Robinson. Musk then said Reform should get a new leader. Farage responded that Musk’s attack on Phillips is “not beyond the line”. No doubt Farage hopes that Musk will keep his semi-promise to give £100 million to Reform. Reform is now around 22% in opinion polls, 1% or 2% behind the Tories, only 6% or 7% behind Labour.

Two lessons for us. The far right is dangerously on the rise. It is not monolithic, not a juggernaut, not unstoppable.

Spearhead

The RN, once the political spearhead of Europe’s far right, with a clear fascist filiation, has been at pains to “moderate” itself and dissociate from the AfD and Trump. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, with a less-clear fascistic back-story and only a recently-concocted and loose party, has kept in with the “centre-right”.

Far-right movements do not have well-debated, nailed-down programmes as socialists do. They are chancers. “Action has buried philosophy”, said Mussolini when he came to office. “Our doctrine is the deed”. There is usually a big element of deliberate extravagance tempered with vagueness to allow for switches in direction.

We can neither conclude from these movements going “moderate” now, like the RN, that they will stay that way; nor from Trump-Musk ultra-bombast that they can see the way ahead cleared of obstacles.

Much depends on us: whether we can unite the left in action, and whether we can transform the labour movement.