Europe’s Far Right Stands for Business Owners, Not Workers
Far-right parties like Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National claim to protect working people. But for all their populist rhetoric, their economic proposals would slash public services and demolish workers’ rights.
European far-right leaders like France’s Marine Le Pen are claiming the mantle of the Left as defenders of workers, but their economic policies tell a different story. (Sylvain Lefevre / Getty Images)
“Factories, workers, teachers, agriculture, craftsmen, are now represented by the League,” Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini claimed last June. Across the Alps, Marine Le Pen has long insisted that she’s taken over from the Left: “I protect [French workers] by opposing immigration . . . [Communist leader] Georges Marchais used to say what I’m saying today.” This May Day in Spain, the Franco-nostalgist Vox party’s leader Santiago Abascal insisted, “Trade unions have sold out and left the workers by themselves.” And according to German MP Jürgen Pohl, “Alternative für Deutschland is the new workers’ party.”
The list could go on: As these quotes show, far-right leaders around Europe claim to stand up for workers abandoned by the Left, or even to defend part of the Left’s old program. Yet our report into these parties’ economic programs shows that the reality is quite different from such slogans. In truth, their programs are characterized not by a defense of workers but a contradictory mixture of protectionist and liberalizing measures. This is because their economic programs reflect their cross-class electoral strategy. In short, they are attempting to attract voters from the popular classes, at the same time as they defend small proprietors and even the very wealthiest.
Opposed Interests
The problem is that it’s impossible to make opposing interests coincide. When we take a closer look at these parties’ economic programs — placing each of their proposals in its national context and considering its historical trajectory — we see that the economic model on which they base themselves is mostly favorable to national capital. These parties are on the side of proprietors, small and large.
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