Georgios Samaras is an assistant professor of public policy at King’s College London.
In 2020, Greek courts condemned neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn as a criminal organization. After six years in jail, its former deputy leader Ilias Kasidiaris is making a political comeback, in conditions that favor his party’s rise.
September’s Unite the Kingdom rally was the largest far-right demonstration in modern British history. This Saturday, fascist influencer Tommy Robinson will again lead a vile mob through London streets, protected by police.
European authorities promote Greece as a postcrisis success story. Yet Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s right-wing government relies on spyware and the opaque use of EU subsidies — and is now overseeing a brutal cost-of-living crisis.
Since becoming leader in 2024, Kemi Badenoch has taken Britain’s Tories onto hard-right territory — and dismal polling. Her call this week to abandon climate targets shows how Britain’s once dominant party has radicalized.
For years, the far right has benefited from a growing rot in British politics, as politicians and the media promote Islamophobia. Now the establishment refuses to confront these riots for what they are: domestic terrorism by white supremacists.
Ahead of June’s EU election, we’re again seeing alarmist rhetoric about far-right insurgents. But the authoritarian turn is happening already — driven by the conservative forces at the heart of the European institutions.