Opinion Dear Editor, I disagree: I am a German citizen. Engaging with the far-right isn’t so simple

At the broadest level, far-right parties across the world have one thing in common: they manufacture outsiders and hold them responsible for all the challenges their countries face. These parties are doing well world-over because communication is easier when you offer simple solutions for increasingly complex and entangled problems. The established political parties and actors can have a conversation with them only on their terms, that is, once the former have acknowledged that the simple solution – expelling the outsiders – holds currency.

Progressive parties such as the outgoing coalition in Germany may have foreclosed the possibility of a conversation – as the editorial mentions in a somewhat perplexed fashion – but they have actually listened and addressed these concerns during their tenure with visible reluctance – what is popularly dubbed in Germany as acquiescence with ‘stomach pain’. The conservative parties (CDU+CSU) have, on the other hand, enthusiastically appropriated the increasingly shrill anti-immigrant rhetoric and even cooperated with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) on passing a non-binding parliamentary resolution on the issue. The famed ‘firewall’ that had so far separated the established parties from those reminiscent of the country’s fascist past no longer exists in practice.

The editorial is perhaps accurate in its analysis that progressive politics lack agility and imagination. In their effort to work around immigration, which displaced economy as the top electoral issue in Germany, and bring focus back to their own agenda, the progressive parties have failed to underline their commitment to universal human rights that the anti-immigration politics positions itself against.

Their biggest problem is not that they have not listened to right-wing politicians, but rather that they have passively absorbed too much without articulating their position on the most pervasive political topic in Germany and Europe currently. While AfD’s electoral ascendance did not come as a surprise, Die Linke’s (The Left) last-minute surge underlines how articulate messaging on core democratic values still has resonance in western democracies. The Left in countries like Germany and France – the real one – has not only survived, but thrived.

What the political ascendance of the far-right in the West shows, in my opinion, is the need to offer comprehensive, compelling answers to the multiple crises ailing different nation-states. Yes, parties must improve their communication strategies and speak to the sections of the population that have gravitated to such parties in search of solutions. But opening channels of communication with people who fear for their future is not the same as conversing with political actors who cynically manipulate said fears and pose a threat to both people and democratic institutions.

The Express View appears to endorse Meloni’s view that far-right parties are unfairly labelled as threats to democracies. Such an argument sidesteps the fact that leaders such as Trump explicitly hold positions against the basic tenets of democracy, constitution and universal human rights. If the editorial’s contention is to accept the shifting definitions of democracy where those working to weaken and hollow out its provisions are not to be perceived as threats as such, the real challenge for left-liberals is to find ways to continue engaging people within the framework afforded by the constitution and the rule of law when their rivals explicitly refuse to.

Such a space is shrinking in western democracies not only for racial and ethnic minorities, but also for the progressive parties. The leaders of the Green Party, including the outgoing Vice Chancellor, have faced physical threats for pursuing policies they deem fit for the future of Germany and Europe. They may or may not have the right idea, but the idea of keeping communication channels open with political actors who advocate actual physical harm appears to be a naïve fantasy.

The writer is an anthropologist and author of Courting Desire: Litigating for Love in North India