A civilisational basket-case

Political extremism is being fuelled by Europe's refusal to hold the cultural line

The Course of Empire: Destruction; Thomas Cole, 1836

This is an expanded version of my column in The Times (£)

The rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland in Germany is alarming. After the general election at the weekend, the AfD has emerged as the principal opposition party.

It’s now snapping at the heels of the conservative Christian Democrat leader, Friedrich Merz, who won the election but must cobble together a coalition government.

There’s an unfortunate tendency in liberal circles to classify every political party that challenges the orthodoxies of the left as “populist”, and to dismiss every populist party as “far right”.

Across Europe, such populists include Vox in Spain, Marine le Pen’s National Rally in France, Viktor Órban’s Fidesz in Hungary and, in Britain, Nigel Farage’s Reform.

These are all routinely dismissed as far right, even though they mostly take regular if uncompromising conservative positions.

Well, if everyone is far right then no-one is far right. Putting the AfD into the same box as these populist parties not only smears all the populists but blunts acknowledgement that the AfD really is far right and beyond the pale.