(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)
Get ready for it — we are going to be scared into believing there is a huge rise in the ultra-right and left-wing fascists in Europe and the world over unless the voters come out in their numbers to support mainstream parties.
A few months ago, France’s President Emmanuel Macron called a snap national election because of the victory of Marine Le Pen’s ultra-right, racist and populist National Front party in the country’s elections. A hastily cobbled together broad left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, contested the elections, received the most votes and thwarted the National Front. There is a hung parliament today with no single party having enough votes to govern.
On Sunday, regional elections were held in the east of Germany. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right, fascist, neo-Nazi and populist party, was the big winner. The AfD got the most votes in the Thuringia region and came second in Saxony. In both regions the national ruling coalition of the Social Democrats and the Greens were rejected.
Just before the snap French elections, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, when interviewing Le Pen, referred to the National Front as right-wing and populist. Le Pen pushed back, asking Amanpour to back up her perspective that the National Front is right-wing or populist.
It got me thinking about how easily we accept these labels of ultra-right wing, ultra-left and populist.
So why is the AfD regarded as far-right, fascist, neo-Nazi and populist? Its two main issues are the cost-of-living crisis and that it does not support Ukraine and Nato. The cost-of-living crisis is closely associated with an agenda that is against immigration. Any party that has a problem with increasing immigration is thought to be xenophobic and racist.
Although the AfD is not in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it does not believe Germany should fund Ukraine, because of the negative effect on the German economy. The 11-year-old AfD has, from its inception, rejected racial and gender identity politics.
This is the postmodern conundrum of politics. At its basic level, politics, particularly democratic politics, is supposed to be about representing the needs of the people in a particular area. As time has passed and societies have grown more complex and sophisticated, we have also adopted certain principles that we regard as universal and basic rights, such as the right to life and dignity. In particular, the right to dignity holds that all humans have a right to not be treated negatively because of their race, gender, religion and cultural background. At the same time we have accepted that as much as all humans are the same and are equal, we are also different because of history and culture.
It does not make one better than the other but, over time and history, there have been wars and conquests, where some people were treated differently to others, and no single society has been equal. Therefore, for dignity to exist, we have to be constantly vigilant of our own prejudices based on the centuries of systemic and structural inequality.
Thus, for all humans to be regarded as equal, we accept that we have to affirm certain groups. Moreover, although we are all humans, and the Earth belongs to all of us, there are countries with distinct borders that must be respected.
The challenge is that as we try to ensure that society does not tolerate any form of racism and sexism, and take responsibility for the “sins of the past”, we must also be respectful of the cultural and national differences between people.
In years gone by, as a society we formulated an elegant solution with affirmative action for historically marginalised groups, even while we committed ourselves to believing in non-sexism and non-racialism. It requires a level of honesty and acceptance of the wrongs of the past so that we can undo them in the present and ensure that the future is better.
The difficulty with and complexity of postmodern politics is that whereas before it was about right-wing and left-wing, where left-wing was a more social agenda based on the will of the poor for representation, and right-wing was more about the needs of the individual and business, today the distinction is not that neat.
For instance, in the very same German regional elections in Saxony and Thuringia, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), a party formed in January this year, came third with about 15% of the vote. It is described as a left-wing populist party. Both the BSW and AfD are against German support for Ukraine and Nato. If we are to believe the political jargon, the BSW and AfD are supposed to be on the opposite sides of the political spectrum and should never overlap on core issues.
In truth, there is no right or left wing. Our politics is dominated by self-serving individual elites, who are generally up for sale to the highest bidder. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, societies have become richer and people have greater access to education, social welfare and basic needs.
We are a global society of “Tintswalos” — the fictitious girl President Cyril Ramaphosa used to explain that people post-apartheid have access to more than those who lived under apartheid. The problem is, most of us are not as happy as our parents were when they were our age. Our belief in a secure future for ourselves and our children is much lower than it was for our parents. We do not believe we will ever live a life of dignity.
Essentially we have lost faith and confidence in the institutions established by democracy that are supposed to serve our needs. The right and left wing have been replaced by establishment and anti-establishment parties. Over the past 20 years, each time a political candidate has sounded as if they wanted to take on the establishment, they have been cheered and received huge amounts of support. The United States’ Barack Obama became a hero overnight because he promised to replace Wall Street with Main Street, and not because he is African American.
The American working class and poor who are more liberal in their political outlooks supported Obama, only to be disappointed by how little he did. Today, the US working class and poor, who are more conservative and traditional in their political outlooks, seemingly support Donald Trump.
The difference, though, is that the mainstream media and political elite lined up to support Obama, but now they are labelling Trump and his supporters racists, fascists and neo-Nazis, just as is happening with Germany’s AfD and the BSW.
Even in South Africa, the anger the poor have against immigrants, especially African immigrants, is not being understood. They are labelled populist and xenophobic. We have not been able to distinguish between the politicians, be it Trump or ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba or the Patriotic Alliance’s Gayton McKenzie, who are exploiting the issue of immigration. We prefer to shout them down with offensive labels, with “xenophobic” being a popular one.
We prefer not to remember that the very same people who voted and supported the right-wing business-friendly Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil also supported the left-wing socialist Lula da Silva in a later election. They voted for these vastly opposing candidates because they believed that they would deal with the matter of crime, despite the concerns for human rights.
Let me leave you with this parting shot. On Saturday night, the Springboks defeated the All Blacks with a victory that many will be talking about for a very long time.
The seeds of that Springbok victory were cultivated last year in the semi-final against England. Rassie Erasmus and his coaching staff subbed off Manie Libbok after just 30 minutes in the first half, and replaced him with Handré Pollard. Many Springbok fans were calling for Libbok to be dropped in favour of Pollard throughout the tournament, but Erasmus refused to. But, when push came to shove, he put aside his personal feelings and was willing to make the popular decision, because it was what the team needed.
The world is crying out for politicians and leaders like Rassie, who have commitment to certain principles and values, but who can recognise that it takes a real leader to listen to the people and accept their leadership.
Who will be our Rassie today?
Donovan E Williams is a social commentator. @TheSherpaZA on X.