The far right is focusing on housing.
Jean-Marie Le Pen's old National Front has long considered the working-class voters of the Communist Party its main source of support. To attract this segment of the population, it adopted a discourse that blended social justice with nationalism, using the well-known slogan "People First." This wasn't exactly a new phenomenon. Back in the 1920s and 30s, fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany also adopted social policies and identified international capital, often equating it with Jews, as the enemy. In Spain, the Primo de Rivera-era Falange also considered itself revolutionary and looked to Hitler and Mussolini for inspiration. A significant portion of the current global far right is returning to this discourse and attempting to capitalize on concerns about access to housing. Not all of it, however, because there are also examples of unrepentant neoliberalism, such as that represented by Javier Milei in Argentina, which opposes any kind of market regulation. Perhaps the most significant gesture in this regard was that of Donald Trump on January 7, when he announced regulations to prevent investment funds from buying single-family homes. "People live in homes, not corporations," Trump said. However, it remains unclear whether this measure has legal standing in the United States.
Other far-right leaders, such as Hungary's Viktor Orbán, have also targeted housing, which has become a global problem, by approving soft loans for purchases and subsidies for young people. In some cases, these are measures also supported by the left, such as banning home purchases by foreigners who do not reside in the municipality, in an attempt to curb speculation. Switzerland has passed a law to this effect, and the Netherlands, under the conservative government of Mark Rutte, outright prohibited the purchase of homes for rental purposes. Clearly, these measures are intertwined with others of a xenophobic or racist nature, such as the promise to deport millions of immigrants to reduce pressure on prices.
In Spain, Vox has long since adopted this discourse and reproduces it through its new deputy spokesperson in Congress, Carlos Hernández Quero, who, from a staunch defense of individual private property, proposes placing limits on large funds and foreign capital, which are obviously one of the factors driving up prices. However, Abascal's party does not support measures such as rent caps.
It is clear that the far right has identified the housing problem as a powerful tool for gaining votes, since it is the factor causing the growth of a pool of people who cannot afford housing and are susceptible to their siren song. Given this, both progressive and conservative governments must get their act together and implement solutions at a faster pace than currently possible, since discontent with housing is growing daily and is the perfect breeding ground for social discontent that could ultimately strengthen the enemies of democracy.
