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Why is the far right on the rise in Europe? An article by the American economist Dani Rodrik provides a summary of the socio-economic literature on this subject. According to the author, globalisation, along with free trade, the liberalisation of capital, and automation, plays a key role in this process, given how it has led to a high level of economic insecurity for certain populations.
De-industrialisation, outsourcing, and the distortion of the capital-labour divide have all worked to the detriment of many workers. Logically, this situation should have benefited the left, but far-right political leaders have managed to turn it to their advantage by mobilising the ethnonational and cultural divide, in other words by constructing a narrative in which foreigners or minorities are the real culprits.
The European migration crisis of 2015 made such discourse more plausible, and it invaded the public space in many European countries. Rodrik’s conclusion is that the great challenge facing policymakers today is to break with a globalisation designed around the needs of capital, in order to achieve a rebalancing in favour of labour.
France does not seem to have chosen this path. Quite the contrary, in fact. While nothing is being done to improve very poor working conditions, and everything is converging on increased suspicion of social welfare recipients and jobseekers, the debate on immigration saturates the public arena to the delight of far-right leaders.
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It is the European Commission and Parliament that seem to be initiating a social turnaround, but this is being held back by the Member States, first and foremost France. A number of directives offer real progress for workers. On 11 March 2024, the EU employment ministers finally approved an agreement on the draft directive on platform work.
The text sets out the criteria for distinguishing between genuine self-employed workers and those who should be recognised as employees (around 5.5 million people according to the Commission). This should make it possible to put an end to the social dumping practised by the many platforms, which evade labour laws, and cause the [French] social security system to lose hundreds of millions of euros in contributions. France voted against, and Germany abstained.
