Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
This, as Paul Simon sang in “The Boy in the Bubble,” is a long-distance call, literally — from Portugal.
Here in Europe — I have lived in the Portuguese college town of Coimbra since February — it seems that while the nativists and xenophobes (and can we please stop calling them “populists”?) are expanding their reach almost everywhere on the continent, the resistance is winning some battles.
Maybe not enough to defeat the authoritarians, but maybe enough to defang them a little and mitigate their stench.
For starters, journalists here are still doing their jobs. According to the World Press Freedom Index, of the countries with the great press freedoms, 18 of the top 21 are in Europe. By comparison, the United States ranks 57th in such freedoms, just ahead of Gambia and below Sierra Leone.
Political parties, too, those who are usually at odds with one another, like those in Portugal, are putting aside decades-old differences, joining each other’s coalitions, and speaking with one voice to box out the extremists. (Think what would happen in the U.S. if Sens. Susan Collins, Linda Murkowski, Bill Cassidy and Tom Tillis, purportedly in the sane wing of the GOP, actually voted with Democrats to halt Trump’s dismantling of America.)
European corporations, unlike the capitulation and cowardice of American institutions — IBM, Gannett, Columbia University, Constellation Brands (makers of Corona and Modelo), United Health Group, Major League Baseball, Victoria’s Secret, State Street, Warner Bros., Goldman Sachs, Paramount, Bank of America, Citibank, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, JPMorgan Chase, Apple, Disney, Deloitte, PBS, Google, Amtrak, Target, Amazon, Meta, McDonald’s, Walmart, Boeing, Lowe’s, Brown-Forman (makers of Jack Daniel’s), Harley-Davidson, John Deere, and,. most recently, Cracker Barrel, to name just 33 — are not rolling back diversity programs, settling lawsuits, plying fascists with gifts, or whimpering in the corner begging not to be hurt.
That, too, is promising.
In Portugal, after three elections in the past year, and even with the right-wing Chega party making advances in each of the elections, the center-right Democratic Alliance, led by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, continues to win elections — and he does so without inviting Chega to join the coalition. Earlier this year, he did order the expulsion of 18,000 undocumented foreigners living in the country as well as tightening visa regulations — an obvious nod to Chega — but then the country’s Supreme Court ruled parts of those measures unconstitutional, which Montenegro accepted. He also seems to be killing Chega with kindness, saying the party is “beginning to show greater responsibility.”
In Sweden, Vänsterpartiet, the country’s left-wing party, recently celebrated its best election results in 20 years in the 2024 European Parliamentary elections, even after strong gains by the anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats, had enormous gains in the 2022 general election.
In the Netherlands, far-right leader Geert Wilders recently pulled out of the coalition government of Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, causing the government to collapse. Wilders, who is as incompetent as he is arrogant, was still smarting over not being named prime minister. Even his own coalition partners are calling him petty and selfish for bringing down the government, while bemoaning what he’s done to the brand.
In the U.K., ReformU.K., headed by Nigel Farage, who spearheaded the U.K.’s exit from the E.U. (Brexit), continues to poll well, but under the country’s winner-take-all voting system, the party is unlikely to propel him to prime minister because it cannot win in enough constituencies. Plus, Farage is seen by many as a show horse who spends more time with Donald Trump flashing the thumb’s-up sign than addressing his constituents’ concerns.
In France, the far-right National Rally party, while increasing its vote in the 2024 national election, didn’t attain power in that election due to a coalition of left-wing parties that banded together to prevent it. Plus, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right, may soon be in jail for embezzlement.
In Poland, after right-wing Karol Nawrocki was elected president, the country’s prime minister, Krzystof Gawkowski, said Nawrocki will receive “no cooperation” in his desire to awaken Polish nativism.
In Romania, after Vladimir Putin protégé Călin Georgescu was elected president, the country’s Supreme Court threw out the victory due to election interference and barred him from running again. After May’s election, in which the Mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, became president, he then named Ilie Bolojan, a liberal, to be prime minister. Bolojan then won a parliamentary vote of confidence.
In Europe, as in America, immigration drives the debate, and, as in America, the issue here is cynically distorted and the facts often belie the passion.
In a study conducted by the ARTE Europe Weekly, a project led by the French-German TV channel ARTE GEIE, the countries where most people consider immigration a problem are Bulgaria (74% of respondents), the Czech Republic (73%), Hungary, and Cyprus (68% for both), but that’s not the full story. In Italy, for instance, the European country where the largest number of immigrants entered, what the survey describes as “irregularly” in 2024 (157,652), only 44% of respondents viewed it as a problem, and only 14% saw it as the main problem. Further, in Greece and Spain, the countries in 2023 with the second- and third-most irregular arrivals, respectively, only 11% of respondents considered it the issue of most concern to them, below the European average of 17%.
The late, less-than-great Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once said, “The Left has moved to the Center; the Center has moved to the Right; and the Right has moved to an insane asylum.” In Europe, it seems, those left on the Left, those in the Center, and those on the Right who haven’t checked into the loony bin are putting up a noble fight.
It may not be considered good news, it may just be delaying the inevitable, but it ain’t nothing. It would help the cause considerably, though, if the fascists here — from Germany to Poland to the U.K. to France to Slovakia to, of course, Hungary and Turkey — didn’t all have the support of the Trump administration.
Barry Friedman is an essayist, political columnist, comedian and Iberian correspondent for The Progressive Populist. His latest book, “Jack Sh*t, Volume 2: Wait For The Movie. It’s In Color” is the follow-up to “Jack Sh*t: Volume One: Voluptuous Bagels and other Concerns of Jack Friedman.” He is also author of “Road Comic,” “Funny You Should Mention It,” “Four Days and a Year Later,” “The Joke Was On Me,” and a novel, “Jacob Fishman’s Marriages.” See barrysfriedman.com and friedmanoftheplains.com.
