In a troubling trend spanning the Western world, the political center-right is rapidly disintegrating. As traditional conservative parties collapse, they are taking with them any remaining constraints on extremism in mainstream politics. Increasingly, so-called “moderate” right-wing forces are openly embracing far-right positions that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The result is a dangerous normalization of anti-democratic rhetoric and a dismantling of long-held political norms.
The Demise of the Center-Right
The political faction known as the “center-right” has met its definitive end in 2024. While never a cohesive ideology, it generally represented a blend of pro-business policies, so-called “traditional values” that often masked prejudice, and respect for established institutions. Most importantly, the center-right supposedly acted as a cordon sanitaire, preventing the far-right fringe from gaining political legitimacy.
That firewall has spectacularly failed. In the UK, Nigel Farage’s populist Reform party now boasts more members than the governing Conservatives – an unprecedented development. Just 20 years ago, then-Tory leader David Cameron dismissed Farage’s old UKIP party as “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists.” Today, the Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch are battling Reform on Farage’s own far-right terrain.
Desperate Diversions
This alarming shift has clear roots. After more than a decade of ruinous Tory policies, Britain is mired in stagnating living standards and crumbling public services. Unable to solve problems of their own making, Conservatives have increasingly turned to divisive culture war tactics, manufacturing scapegoats to divert blame from their own failings.
The Thatcher era offered council house sales and privatization – harmful long-term, but crowd-pleasing short-term policies to buy off voters. No such options exist for today’s Tories. Instead, they find themselves compelled to imitate the demagogic politics they once denounced as beyond the pale.
Brexit was a watershed moment that saw the party adopt a populist demagoguery that breached the walls of any remaining cordon sanitaire.
The Global Far-Right Turn
This center-right meltdown is evident across the West. In the US, a conspiracist, authoritarian Trumpism has captured the Republican party – enabled by establishment conservatives who indulged in Islamophobia and racist “birtherism.”
Throughout Europe, center-right parties are lurching to extremes:
- Austria’s People’s Party forged a trailblazing far-right alliance in 2000, and has only radicalized further since.
- Hungary’s ruling Fidesz has devolved from center-right to proto-fascist.
- In Italy, the erstwhile “moderate” right plays junior partner to the far-right.
- Germany’s once-centrist Christian Democrats are shifting right as far-right parties surge.
Media Complicity
Significant responsibility lies with media outlets, especially those helmed by Rupert Murdoch, which have bombarded the public with hateful screeds against marginalized groups like Muslims, migrants, and trans people. Tech platforms have exacerbated the crisis, with Elon Musk turning Twitter into a far-right radicalization engine.
The upshot is that respect for democratic norms and boundaries on extremism have vanished from the political right. On both sides of the Atlantic, conservative figures now routinely embrace disinformation, authoritarian rhetoric, and vicious bigotry – positions they would have shunned just a few years prior.
Looming Consequences
Where will this unraveling lead? With no clear limits on “acceptable” right-wing politics, we are in dangerously uncharted territory. Tragically, the Western world may only wake up to the devastating impacts of this extremist ideology after a grim reckoning. By then, the damage to democratic institutions and values may be too extensive to easily repair.
The collapse of the center-right is no cause for nostalgia; this was a political force that long championed harmful neoliberal economics and militarism. But its demise has left a vacuum now filled by something even more sinister – an unrestrained far-right that views opponents as enemies and democracy as dispensable. Unless reversed, this portends a dark future for politics across the increasingly illiberal West.
Media Complicity
Significant responsibility lies with media outlets, especially those helmed by Rupert Murdoch, which have bombarded the public with hateful screeds against marginalized groups like Muslims, migrants, and trans people. Tech platforms have exacerbated the crisis, with Elon Musk turning Twitter into a far-right radicalization engine.
The upshot is that respect for democratic norms and boundaries on extremism have vanished from the political right. On both sides of the Atlantic, conservative figures now routinely embrace disinformation, authoritarian rhetoric, and vicious bigotry – positions they would have shunned just a few years prior.
Looming Consequences
Where will this unraveling lead? With no clear limits on “acceptable” right-wing politics, we are in dangerously uncharted territory. Tragically, the Western world may only wake up to the devastating impacts of this extremist ideology after a grim reckoning. By then, the damage to democratic institutions and values may be too extensive to easily repair.
The collapse of the center-right is no cause for nostalgia; this was a political force that long championed harmful neoliberal economics and militarism. But its demise has left a vacuum now filled by something even more sinister – an unrestrained far-right that views opponents as enemies and democracy as dispensable. Unless reversed, this portends a dark future for politics across the increasingly illiberal West.
