Liberal democratic leaders out or embattled in office; the right on the rise ... Trump’s second coming has echoes of a century ago and Yeats’s warning that ‘the centre cannot hold’
Is the West experiencing just another swing of the political pendulum or is Trump 2.0 a sign of something darker?
‘The minute I sat down on the train, I knew I’d been scammed’: Are the Irish susceptible to con artists?After failed coalition talks among runner-up rivals, Kickl and his allies will either head a new coalition or – now on 37 per cent in polls – come back even stronger after a snap election. His Social Democrats are trailing in third place behind the far-right Alternative for Germany . Its resentment-fuelled nationalism and emotional social media messaging has pushed the centre-right Christian Democratic Union – likely leading polls – further to the right. All mainstream parties are running scared ofas the only party that can “save” Germany. Its leaders hope Musk will push the party even further above its current, record 21 per cent support.
The main existential threat, as he sees it, is to those who secured privileges, riches and influence in a period now ending. Ortega suggested the battle for Europe, then on the precipice of fascism, was not left-right or even class-based but about people with insight versus the ignorant army of “mass-man” driven by – and drawn to – ill-informed people like themselves.
Confusing subjective and objective however, is, in itself, a trademark of social media and a trying sign of the times., claiming that existing content moderation – consistent if imperfect controls to separate fact from fiction and truth from lies – was censorship.“Great is truth,” wrote Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, “but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” Profitable, too.
Looking back a century, Prof Jones sees the real challenge in taking on populists is pacing oneself amid a permanent onslaught of outrage and distraction. For all the gloom, many political analysts see reasons to be cheerful. Embattled or departing liberal western leaders in 2025 need not be a sign of a system collapsing – but functioning.
Italy’s post-fascist prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s skill at handling Trump and Musk could make her Europe’s most important conduit in addressing, or avoiding, a transatlantic trade war. “We must become an organism capable not only of survival but also of political offensives,” said Tusk this week, while launching Poland’s six-month presidency of the EU. “We will be very determined to make Europe start thinking in Polish terms.”
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