The war in Ukraine has embarrassed the major far-right movements in Europe, which oscillate between ideological loyalty to Vladimir Putin and solidarity with Kiev, while pointing out the responsibility, in their eyes, of the West in the conflict.
From Germany to France via Italy, Austria or Spain, the leaders of these radical formations have certainly unequivocally denounced the Russian invasion, often referred to by the Allied leaders as “Putin’s war “.
In France, Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National (RN), among others, condemned an “indefensible” violation of international law.
“When someone attacks, it is clear that you have to side with the one who is attacked,” said Italian Matteo Salvini, a declared admirer of Putin and leader of the League which supports the coalition government of Mario Draghi.
On this point, these “populist” formations have gotten in tune – for once – with the other parties and above all “with the immense solidarity” of public opinion vis-à-vis the Ukrainians, estimates Hajo Funke, professor in political science at the Free University of Berlin.
“Russian propaganda”
The unanimity stops when the analysis of the responsibilities of the war begins.
In Germany, the head of the AfD parliamentary group Alice Weidel thus denounced to the Bundestag the “historic failure” of the West which maintained a prospect of Ukraine joining NATO instead of promoting for this country a solution of “guaranteed neutrality”. According to her, this amounted to denying “Russia great power status”.
“The culprit is Putin, those responsible are NATO, which has continued to expand”, added Eric Zemmour, the other figure of the French far right, who in 2018 called for his wishes a “French Poutine”.
These parties in fact join “the Russian positions according to which the conflict should not be attributed exclusively to Vladimir Putin, but rather largely to the West”, points out political scientist Wolfgang Schröder from the University of Kassel to AFP .
If Russia is not threatened, “then what is NATO doing on its borders? “, thus launched the leader of the small nationalist party “Greek Solution” Kyriakos Velopoulos.
“In my opinion, Russia did not have much choice,” said Dutchman Thierry Baudet of the Forum for Democracy, drawing the wrath of other parties who accused him of relaying “Russian propaganda”.
Those who cultivated close ties with the head of the Kremlin, at least in terms of sharing his anti-liberal values and the cult of the “strong man”, struggle to distance themselves clearly.
Today’s Vladimir Putin is “not the one” who received her in Moscow in 2017, justified Marine Le Pen, criticized for a photo immortalizing their meeting and appearing in the campaign leaflets -printed by longtime- from RN.
Loss of influence?
“The European far right is trapped between its radical and neo-fascist ideology, which it shares with Putin”, and the risk of losing “its influence” in public opinion, deciphers Mr. Funke for AFP.
The stakes are particularly acute for the two French formations, which continue to gather a third of the voting intentions, in this election year. In a recent survey, the AfD fell below the 10% mark.
Notable concessions, some of these deeply anti-migrant parties such as the RN, the AfD, the ultra-nationalist Spanish formation Vox and part of the Austrian FPÖ, have declared themselves in favor of welcoming Ukrainian refugees fleeing the fights.
In the European context, Lorenzo Castellani, researcher in political science at the Luiss University in Rome, already anticipates a shift in the sovereignist line of the League, the party “the most compromised with Putin”.
A constant in their current position consists in calling into question the effectiveness of the unprecedented economic sanctions imposed on Russia, which will moreover hit the allied countries in repercussions.
Germany also admitted on Thursday that it was expecting “significant repercussions” on its economy.
“In the long term, it is not impossible that the AfD (from) will benefit”, advances Wolfgang Schröder, already posing as “protector of the little people”.