Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

War of words | 15 August 2019

Branding all conservatives ‘far right’ is both wrong and dangerous

Italy is preparing to go back to the polls and this time Matteo Salvini looks set to return as the undisputed king of Italian politics. His Lega party (formerly the Northern League) has split with its coalition partner, the Five Star movement. For Salvini, the appeal of a general election is obvious: Five Star’s popularity has slumped during the 14-month government, but Lega’s has soared. It now boasts of being the biggest party not only in the north of Italy but — previously unimaginably — in the south. So Salvini can now ditch his coalition partner and seek his own majority.

If he succeeds, this will cause fresh headaches for Brussels and embody a far deeper conundrum. In the Euro elections in May, Lega became one of the largest parties in the European parliament and Salvini hailed the start of a new era. ‘Not only is Lega the first party in Italy,’ he said, ‘but also Marine Le Pen is the first party in France, Nigel Farage is the first party in the UK. Therefore, Italy, France, the UK — it is the sign of a Europe that is changing… a new Europe has been born.’

He may be right or wrong on that. But what that speech — and the rise of the Lega in general — demonstrates is that our political lexicon in Europe is all over the place. For years Lega has been described as ‘far right’ — but does this term really describe what’s happening to Italy? The changes in Europe have been profound and are becoming more so. But labelling every upstart party as far right is impeding our ability to assess, and navigate, the changes that are likely across the continent.

These changes have been happening for years now, and the vocabulary used to describe European politics stopped being fit for purpose some time ago.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in