Another populist president - Rise of the far right poses dangers

BRAZIL is the latest country to see political success ride the wave of populism. On the first day of the year, right-wing nationalist Jair Bolsonaro was sworn in as the country’s president.

Mr Bolsonaro said in his inaugural address that his country had been “liberated from socialism and political correctness” now that he has taken power, declaring: “We have a great nation to rebuild.”

Sounds familiar? It should. Those words echo those of Donald Trump when he was sworn in as US President two years ago. Little wonder that Trump sent his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the inauguration.

Driven by anti-immigrant sentiment, what began almost simultaneously in the US and the UK, has now become a global political movement. It has even reached countries not usually associated with extreme right-wing views.

In Sweden, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats (SD) a party with Nazi roots led by Jimmie Åkesson, holds the balance of power following a general election there in September. The country is undergoing an unprecedented political crisis as Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven was rejected by parliament just before Christmas when 200 MPs voted against him becoming prime minister.

Another attempt to elect a prime minister will be made on January 14 when MPs return after a three-week Christmas break. In the meantime, far-right groups in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries are gaining ground. There are growing calls from their ranks for a Nordic revolution and they are not afraid to use violence to support their racist views.

The political crisis in Sweden provides yet another new year headache for European Union bosses who, aside from trying to plan for the chaos of a no-deal Brexit, are also facing fires in Italy, Poland, Austria and Hungary.

The Italian government finally passed a budget two days ago after weeks of wrangling over its deficit permitted under EU fiscal rules. The far-right government in Hungary has said it will resist any EU attempt to strip it of its right to protect its borders while more and more Eurosceptics are emerging in Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic, most of them voicing strident opposition to migration.

We should not assume that these issues will not affect us here. The Irish political system is ill-prepared to deal with the emergence of anti-immigrant politics. In 2004, the year that saw the biggest enlargement of the EU, we passed a referendum removing the right of citizenship at birth to the Irish-born children of immigrants. It was approved by more than 80% of those who voted, an overwhelming endorsement of defensive nationalism.

The rise of the far right poses dangers not seen since the rise of extreme nationalism in the form of fascism in the 1930s. It is taking similar forms to fascism, focusing hatred and bile on a disparate group of vulnerable humanity; in the present case, immigrants.

It is a tumour growing bigger and more global by the day. We ignore it at our peril.