2023-06-13 05:10:39
The new SPÖ boss Babler might “change the political narrative for the first time,” believes political scientist Mudde. He calls the story that social democracy lost a particularly large number of voters to right-wing populists a myth.
The leading right-wing populism expert Cas Mudde sees the new SPÖ boss Andreas Babler as possibly pointing the way for Europe’s social democracy. Babler is “someone who can change the political narrative for the first time,” said Mudde, referring to his clear left-wing politics. “It is unclear whether he will be successful, but at least he tried,” said the Dutch political scientist. On the other hand, a legal course is not very promising.
Mudde came to Vienna for a lecture at the Central European University (CEU). He reported that only recently the Swedish or Flemish Social Democrats have taken a right-wing tack on the issue of migration. The new SPÖ boss Babler, on the other hand, “is not going in the direction of nativism,” said the political scientist, using the political science term for xenophobic nationalism.
“Myth” that social democrats lose a lot to right-wing populists
“There is no empirical evidence that this strategy has ever worked,” Mudde commented on the view that supporters of Burgenland’s governor Hans Peter Doskozil and numerous opinion leaders offensively advocated in the run-up to the SPÖ party conference that the SPÖ might alienate FPÖ voters with a right-wing migration policy make. It is a “myth” that social democrats have lost a particularly large number of voters to right-wing populist parties. In fact, the departure was more to conservative parties and the Greens.
Political science research also shows that potential social-democratic voters “predominantly want a courageous left-wing policy”. Such a move might also mobilize younger non-voters, while the issue of migration is particularly important to older voters. Social democratic parties already have a “very old electorate”. “To put it bluntly, these voters may have four more elections ahead of them.” That’s why it makes more sense to appeal to younger voters, argued Mudde.
In addition, the issue of migration in Austria is already being offered to two right-wing parties. “Why should you still vote for the SPÖ when you have the FPÖ and ÖVP?” In this context, Mudde also cleared up the much-cited Danish model. In the polls, the Social Democrats there are now back to where they were before they shifted to the right. The success of the Danish Social Democrats was thus “only short-term”, but with long-term consequences for the political discourse. After all, practically the entire spectrum of Danish parties would now pursue a policy of nativism.
Mudde has been researching right-wing populism for two decades. His definition, according to which right-wing populist parties are authoritarian, nativist (anti-foreigner-nationalist) and populist, has become firmly established internationally. However, he conceded that it was now almost impossible to draw clear dividing lines between right-wing and right-wing populist parties.
ÖVP should not become a “junior partner of the FPÖ”.
The researcher wants to focus the spotlight primarily on traditional parties that, for opportunistic reasons, advocate right-wing populist policies that endanger democracy. “The ÖVP is a major problem for liberal democracy in Austria,” stated Mudde. Former ÖVP leader and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was “just as dangerous for liberal democracy as (then FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian) Strache,” he said. Today one can only recommend the ÖVP “that it does not enter a government as a junior partner on the terms of the FPÖ”.
Mudde doesn’t believe in attempts to normalize right-wing populist parties. “It doesn’t work, and the ÖVP-FPÖ government was one of the best examples of this,” said the political scientist, referring to the political antics of the then Interior Minister and current FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl. Right-wing populist parties are “always a threat” to liberal democracy, “even if they pretend to be nice”. The idea that one might “control” such parties as government partners is also misguided. In this regard, Mudde referred to the Italian ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who died on Monday, whose Forza Italia was recently overtaken by two right-wing populist parties. After the death of its founder, only half of the electorate, which has shrunk to eight percent, will probably remain.
“The fundamental problem is not the radical right, but the weakness of liberal democracy,” emphasized Mudde. Instead of fighting right-wing populist parties, liberal democracy must be strengthened. For this it is important to deal comprehensively with political problems and not only on the basis of the agenda set by the right-wing populist parties. If one talks regarding migration “only on Fridays”, the topic becomes smaller, and with it the right-wing populist parties because they “have less to say” on other issues. For most people, migration is only important because it is talked regarding so much, he stressed.
He does not see the FPÖ as an exceptional case in a European comparison. Contrary to a widespread prejudice, there are also stable and traditional right-wing populist parties in other countries. For example, the French Rassemblement National or the Belgian Vlaams Belang go back to the 1970s. The FPÖ owes its stability to a strong organizational structure, which has also carried it through crises. The peculiarity of the FPÖ is that it has repeatedly switched from the marginalized to the mainstream party and back once more. According to Mudde, there has never been such a “yo-yo” development anywhere else.
(WHAT)
1686634697
#Political #scientist #Mudde #ÖVP #problem #liberal #democracy #in..
