Alexandra Leitão – a discourse on populism, far-right nationalism and threats to the State of Law

An interesting reflection on the reasons behind the rise of the far right and populist political parties in Europe was delivered to the members of the International Club of Portugal (ICPT) by Portuguese parliamentary deputy Alexandra Leitão earlier this month.

Text: Chris Graeme; Photo: ICPT

The concept of the State of Law, democracy, and the future of the European project, which have been the fundamental foundations of Europe and the United States since the end of World War II, are at risk of being undermined by far-right nationalist and populist movements warns a Portuguese parliamentary deputy.

Alexandra Leitão, who served as secretary of State for Education until 2019 in the first term of the PS socialist government led by António Costa, told business leaders at the Marriott Hotel on 10 July that while optimistic about the European Union and Member States ability to try and address social and economic concerns posed by globalisation and a neoliberal system, warned of the dangers of populist and far-right discourse employing reductionist and simplistic political arguments to address complex problems with easy solutions, while at the same time using democracy, freedom of speech and the State of Law as tools to undermine the current democratic system.

2024 – The year of all elections 

The public law and constitutional administration lawyer provided an overview of a “year of all elections” in which Portugal also celebrated the 50th anniversary of 25 April Revolution, with various elections having taken place or scheduled to be held around the world, including Indonesia, South Africa, Taiwan, the UK, Belgium, Austria, Finland, the European Parliament and the United States.

The general trend in these elections had seen the ascendancy of populist, ultra-conservative, ultra-nationalist and anti-European Union political parties which, she says, is “somewhat worrying”.

Election wins variously included the Fidesz Party led by Viktor Orban in Hungary, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, and the probable victory of the Freedom Party of Austria led by Herbert Kicki in September’s Austrian elections, while in the US it was quite likely that Donald Trump would win the elections there in November with very relevant consequences for the entire world, particularly Ukraine.

France had bucked the trend in its elections when the left-wing New Popular Front with Jean-Luc Mélenchon won the election and the centrist Ensemble alliance staged an unexpected comeback, pushing the far-right National Rally (RN) into third place.

In the UK too, the recent general election saw a landslide for the Labour Party after nearly 15 years of Conservative rule.

In the European Parliament elections the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) scored a clear victory with 188 of 720 seats, while the hard-right eurosceptic and populist parties – including Marine Le Pen’s National Rally – the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) got 78, the Patriots of Europe Group got 84, and the Europe of Sovereign Nations netted 25 seats.

Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) also rose to second place in the EU elections, capturing 16% of the German votes and 14 MEPs to take its place alongside the Patriots for Europe group led by France’s National Rally and the Fidesz party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “This is worrying since some AfD leaders are openly Neo-Nazis”, said Alexandra Leitão.

“I am fundamentally pro-Europe, it is a project of solidarity and fraternity and has guaranteed peace in Europe for decades, and these elections will have consequences for the future of the European project”, she said.

The State of Law at risk

The State of Law and its vulnerability was, within this context, important since a characteristic of these far-right and populist parties, despite varying in degree from country to country, were anti-systemic in nature or wanted to change the system in some way.

Examples of anti-systemic movements included what happened on the Capitol in the United Staes on 16 January, 2020 or on the Praça dos Três Poderes in Brasilia on 8 January, 2023 – both of which put democratic elections at risk.

In Europe, as in America, these anti-establishment tendencies were undermining the common ground established after World War II and included threats to freedom and equality, equality of the sexes, races and ethnicities, non-discrimination, solidarity and respect for civil and political rights for all; all of which were “never so much a risk as they are now.”

Ironically, these parties seeking to undermine these rights were using the same democratic processes available to everyone to do so.

“Democracy permits everyone the right to express opinions, including those who are intolerant, because this is the moral and ethical superiority of democracy, allowing all under the principles of freedom of expression, protest and association to make such opinions even when it puts democracy at risk”, she added.

Desperate people – radical solutions

It allowed for the auto-criticism of the system by a group of very relevant people in all European countries, particularly on behalf of those who have been left behind by the triumph of globalisation in terms of the economy and opportunities.

“People who feel left behind tend to seek protest parties that are outside a system that has left them behind and desperate people seek radical solutions.”

Young people too were not disposed towards taking moderate lines and were attracted to more radical answers, as was seen in the last parliamentary elections in Portugal when the populist party Chega became the third political force in Portugal, in large measure because of votes from people under 30.

“The fact that young people are abandoning mainstream party politics is something that needs much debate, thought and consideration,” said Alexandra Leitão.

Geographical discontent

Second, there was the factor of “geographical discontent”, which Portugal is particularly vulnerable to. “Today, in various European countries, there are several regions, which because of their low population density, feel underrepresented in political power, creating a perception, in some ways correct, that they don’t have a voice in parliament. In Portugal there are two regions (Alentejo and Guarda) where this is patent and in which the electorate in these regions feel that no attention is paid to their problems”, explained the deputy.

In fact, the index that measures how Portuguese citizens overall feel represented in elections fell from 9th position to 22nd position last year, after having been in third place in the ranking of 173 counties in 2017 according to a study by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).

This had a lot to do with the phenomena of rurality which according to academics is part of the explanation.

There was also a logic of values. “In the 1960s and 1970s we saw a struggle for sexual equality which today is being put at risk. This is being seen among the youth with civilisational questions resulting in a step backwards in such values.

Immigration and refugees

Another reason behind the rise in populist and far-right parties was immigration and refugees. “Statistically there is a direct link between the increase in immigration and populist and far-right parties, particularly from 2016 in Germany with the rise of the AfD as a result of Angela Merkel’s decision to accept refugees”, explained Alexandra Leitão.

In the UK, Tony Blair warned Keir Starmer to “close off the avenues” of the populist right by keeping tough controls on immigration.

The former prime minister said the new government should tackle parties such as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK by dealing with people’s grievances while sticking to the centre ground to hold Labour’s electoral coalition together.

However, he also said he believed that immigration should be celebrated for the good it had done the country, adding that the Conservative party’s “mad” approach to the issue had damaged the economy.

Mediatisation of social networks

The mediatisation of social networks had changed and influenced political views because of the abundance of ideas, thoughts and opinions circulating on social media platforms with opinions and suggestions that are at times “completely drastic, violent, and unpleasant” that would not be said “face-to-face or over the telephone”.

“It’s an environment where it is easy to spread fake news and create trends but difficult to remove or disprove,” said the former secretary of State.

Then there was the unethical use of AI and other mechanisms that digitalisation has brought as a factor to manipulate electorates, such as the link between consulting firm Cambridge Analytica which claimed to be able to use Facebook data for its clients to better target political messages to people that could be influenced, also known as “micro-targeting.” Facebook shut down access for new apps (such as “This Is Your Digital Life”) to this API in 2014, and the Application Programming Interface (API) access was fully shut down in 2015.

Then again, in 2018 Cambridge Analytica exploited the personal information of millions of Facebook users without their consent. The firm accessed this data through a third-party app that collected information exposing a total of 87 million users’ data.

Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the data to influence political campaigns, including the 2016 US presidential election in 2016 and the UK Brexit vote in 2016, raising concerns about the manipulation of democratic processes.

The incident highlighted the severe consequences of a company neglecting its ethical responsibilities in handling user data and raised important questions about privacy, accountability, and the power social media platforms hold in the modern world.

This in addition to bots created from false profiles, processes generated through algorithms where it was easy to spread hate speech, and digital trolling all could be used to propagate inflammatory speeches.

“These factors have various pernicious effects, including the spread of false information, encouraging discrimination, racism and xenophobia, and moral violence, leading social network users to argue and even be blocked from these spaces, and others to stop using them altogether.”

“This cyberbullying has been fertile for easy, simplistic and reductionist discourses for problems and issues that are complex, making arguments simplistic,” said the Portuguese parliamentary deputy.

Alexandra Leitão was of the opinion that there should be an alternation between democratic parties and not one between democratic and extreme parties.

“Only democracy and the State of Law are the solution to democracy and demagogy”, concluded the former PS government secretary of State for Education speaking at the ICPT.