The Danger of the Far Right Occupying Brussels
Far-right politicians Santiago Abascal, Macarena Olona and Giorgio Meloni at an event in Marbella, Spain in 2022. (Image: Vox España, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
This article was originally published by La Marea on 3 June 2024 and translated by John Collins.
A recent article in El País by the renowned journalist Soledad Gallego-Díaz is titled Occupy Brussels: far right objective. I agree that that is their goal… and they are getting closer to it by the day. All forecasts indicate that the far-right candidates and parties will be able to substantially increase their weight in the European Parliament [in the upcoming elections, to be held on June 9], thereby gaining influence in all the EU institutions.
If they finally succeed, the situation in Europe will become very worrying (it already is, actually). Perhaps not so much because this implies the demolition of the so-called “European project” as because the policies applied - on migration and social rights, for example - bear the imprint of the far right.
We must denounce and confront this dynamic and, above all, we must analyze the underlying causes that are fueling it. Here there are very diverse factors that account for the growing electoral support of the far right (where are the supposed moderates?).
The shares of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion varied across the EU countries in 2022. (Source: Eurostat)
I won’t go into this matter, which I consider to be essential for the left to reflect on. I just want to recall that, according to Eurostat (the European statistical office), the number of people who in 2022 were in a situation of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union (EU) reached 95 million, which represents more than one-fifth of the total population (in the Spanish State, the figures increase to 12.5 million, which is 26.5% of the population).
We have to look in that direction to understand the social basis of the appeal that the populist proclamations of the far right have among segments of the population that are suffering and to whom slogans like “the economy is booming” (which I have heard from both Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz, to give two nearby examples) sound like heavenly music. This insensitivity towards the losers and, most importantly, the absence of policies that improve their situation, is a breeding ground for the messages of the ultras, reflecting part of the disaffection caused by inequality that remains at unacceptably high levels and is even increasing.
Now my analysis deals with another issue that points towards corporate power; I encourage the reader to consider this perspective as the other side of the coin of the same problem and reveals a Europe that is badly adrift.
Starting from the same headline that I referenced at the beginning of this article, I am going to modify it in a way that, despite its importance, is rarely addressed by analysts and commentators. What’s worse, it receives little attention from supposedly left-wing politicians: "Occupy Brussels: objective achieved by corporate elites."
Many organizations have criticized the “revolving door” phenomenon that enables individuals to move with little restriction between the private sector and European Union public sector institutions. (Image: Corporate Europe Observatory)
I am not talking about a remote possibility or an improbable threat but rather a bleeding reality (which, without a doubt, has something to do with the rise of the right). Thousands of pressure groups (lobbies, as they say in English) that articulate the interests of large companies - productive, commercial and financial - extend their tentacles throughout the EU institutions. They actively participate in decision-making processes, operating from opaque spaces and placing their representatives in key positions in the institutional framework, and then receiving them into their companies through revolving doors that operate continuously, without any restrictions. In this way, they manage to obtain a good chunk of the public resources generated by both the EU and national governments.
This phenomenon of the colonization of institutions by corporate power is not new - in fact, it is at the very origin of the European Economic Community - but it has grown and become entrenched in community institutions. For anyone who wants to see it, it is part of the really existing EU.
These elites have not only safeguarded their interests - with and without crisis, before and after the introduction of the Euro - but they have also conditioned, for their own benefit and in a decisive manner, the policies carried out by the EU institutions, policies that consequently bear a clear class component working in favor of oligarchies. This includes what they have done - for example, the budgetary austerity measures and wage control or the rescue of the big banks at everyone’s expense - and what they have not done. Examples of the latter are the survival of tax havens within the EU, the refusal, despite rhetorical games, to implement a progressive tax policy at the European level, or the lukewarm and inconsistent nature of the so-called European Green Deal.
These are just some examples of the importance of placing the issue of corporate power and its privileges at the center of the European debate. Without moving in this direction, it is impossible to substantially reduce inequality, and thereby to contain the far right. In short, removing corporate power from the equation that allows us to understand Europe and how it works is a serious mistake that only works to the advantage of the right.
