BIRMINGHAM/LONDON/PARIS
The British Conservative Party suffered a crushing defeat in the summer parliamentary elections. The party lost half of the voters compared to the previous parliamentary elections. A large part of the supporters fled to the ranks of the populist Reform party.
Nigel Farage founded by Reform was born in the aftermath of Brexit. It offers a populist alternative that idealizes the past and is clearly more right-wing than the conservatives.
Between September and October, interviewed young conservatives in Birmingham, where the conservatives gathered for their party conference.
The young people’s message was clear. In their opinion, conservatism should not be aligned more right-wing and especially extreme right-wing in fear of Reform.
Holly Moscrop Glascow guesses that not many people who voted for Reform have far-right views.
– They voted for Reform because it seems against traditional power. People are tired of the big traditional parties. I understand that, says Holly Moscrop.
In his opinion, conservatives should not imitate the extreme right: it does not solve political problems.
A Birmingham native Hugo Rosenberg is on the same line. He thinks that ideas emerge best from the political center. In Rosenberg’s opinion, a politician should focus on concrete issues.
– What you really offer to people is important. If it doesn’t interest you, you should go to other jobs, says Rosenberg.
Scandals were the bane of conservatives
The Conservatives’ election defeat was led by the chairman Rishi Sun too get rid of The conservatives managed to be in power for 15 years.
– The conservatives were tired. I ran out of ideas. In management, everyone hated each other.
This is how the party’s state is characterized by the emeritus professor of political research at the University of Cambridge, interviewed by David Runciman.
In his view, two key events sealed the downfall of the Conservatives.
Prime Minister of the corona era party kohu Boris Johnson with the official residence destroyed the party’s reputation. The people were frozen in corona isolation, while at the same time the elite celebrated and booze flowed in Downing Street.
The party stumbled again when it appointed By Liz Truss became prime minister and managed to get rid of him in six weeks. Truss is the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history.
– These mistakes were political suicides, Runciman estimates.
Expert at the conservative Center for Policy Studies think tank Joseph Dinnage admits the credibility of the scandal-ridden party. In his opinion, the voters also assessed that the party did not take advantage of the opportunities provided by leaving the EU.
– And even though they promised to lower taxes, they have risen to a historic high – the highest since the Second World War, says Dinnage.
The new leader will take the party to the right
The Conservatives lost 251 parliamentary seats. It now has 121 seats. In the worst horror pictures before the elections, it was assumed that the party could shrink to a party of 50 MPs.
According to David Runciman, the party should ask whether the elections went surprisingly well after all. The party was not destroyed, but that can still happen.
– If the party thinks that everything is fine with the new chairman and the voters are slowly coming back, it is fooling itself, David Runciman estimates.
In the fall, the Conservatives elected a 44-year-old Nigerian with a background as their chairman Kemi Badenoch. He is clearly a right-wing conservative.
The average age of the Conservatives’ membership is 63 years. Kemi Badenoch’s message resonated with them.
He has spoken particularly sarcastically about the culture wars and how the so-called woke are displacing British values and how left-wing ideologies have saturated British institutions. The American debate affects Britain as well.
Researcher Dinnage is not convinced by Kemi Badenoch’s emphasis.
– Conservatives should not put so much emphasis on culture wars. It prevents us from seeing real political problems and things that can change people’s lives.
Immigration is the most important theme
The conservatives’ turn to the right is precisely due to the fear of the Reform party. Brexit gave birth to Reform. The party has also become a channel for otherwise conservative people.
According to David Runciman, the Conservative Party has a delusion that they can convert those who voted for Reform to the Conservatives.
– It’s not that easy. Many will vote Reform anyway. They have had enough of conservatives, says David Runciman.
Reform in Britain is what right-wing populist and far-right parties represent in continental Europe. Opposition to immigration is the most central of the themes.
Joseph Dinnage says that the moderate center-right and center-left should take over the debate on immigration.
– If you want a reasonable and practical way to manage borders, then you can’t let the extreme right hijack the whole discussion about immigration and immigration, Joseph Dinnage thinks.
He says that populist politics cannot govern and lead the government sustainably.
– Why become a populist? Why cling to that hype and claim that there is a simple answer to all difficult questions?
Barnier is a prisoner of the extreme right
The moderate right is also in an identity crisis on the other side of the English Channel in France.
In the parliamentary elections of the summer, the Republican party shrunk to a group of 47 representatives. The party has been torn apart, and the group that left its ranks has been glued to the side of the far-right National Alliance.
President of France Emmanuel Macron in spite of everything raised the hero politician of the Republican party Michel Barnier as prime minister. Barnier’s minority government leans on Macron’s center-right and the Republicans party.
The minority government’s shoulders are narrow, and it needs the support of the far-right National Alliance in parliament.
interviewed a public-left professor of sociology Eric Fassin estimates that Barnier will be in power just as long as the National Coalition allows.
– The government is a prisoner of the National Alliance. The national coalition does not need to be in the government to govern, says Fassin.
According to him, democracy was wiped off the table in the government solution when the prime minister was taken from a party whose popularity is declining. In the elections, the joint coalition of the left became the largest group, but Macron did not want it in the government.
– It was shown that elections are not of great importance.
Fassin reminds that republicanism has previously meant that parties committed to republican values work together to prevent the rise of the extreme right to power.
According to him, President Emmanuel Macron’s starting point is now that anything other than the left is suitable for the government.
– In no case does Prime Minister Barnier want to govern without the National Coalition.
In Fassini’s opinion, Macron’s center-right Ensemble coalition has drifted significantly to the right.
– I don’t know if there is a moderate right-wing left in France. There are only individuals who represent that thinking.
Sociologist Eric Fassin especially criticizes Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s position as the figurehead of the moderate right.
– Moderation is not talking gently.