BarcelonaThe global crisis caused by the rise to power of Donald Trump has intensified the debate on how to label, ideologically, the spheres controlled by the extreme right. A controversy that is apparently causing considerable reluctance among historians, political scientists, analysts, and journalists when it comes to presenting facts and ideas in black and white. Because it's not just a question of how to use the terminology: far right, extreme right, far right, populist far right? Or simply right-wing populism or ultra populism? It might seem like we're dealing with a handful of euphemisms and substitutes to choose from when talking about Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Orbán, or Le Pen. Some warn of the risk of falling into a certain "banalization" of fascism. And the signals emitted by reality invite us to delve deeper into the issue.
In 2021, the Italian thinker Steven Forti attempted to expose the relationship between younger voters and the global ultra phenomenon. And perhaps that's why Forti was reluctant to say that "calling the new far right fascists makes no sense and is counterproductive." Just three years later, in November 2024, with Trump in power, Steven Forti made a significant about-turn and stated: "Far rightists like Trump are murdering democracy." He wasn't wrong, but he was careful not to draw analogies with fascism and Nazism.
A similar formulation is that of the British historian Richard Evans when he says: "Leaders who could become dictators, like Trump, are enemies of democracy, but they are not Nazis." Robert Paxton, an American historian and specialist in fascism, doesn't see it that way. Paxton also believed that Trump was an ultra-populist. until the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021Hitler came to power taking advantage of the collapse of the Weimar Republic, and for now, the United States is not a failed state; it's a solid structure. But the cracks, which it does have, are a harbinger of the decline to which Trump could lead the country.
"Every age has its fascism"
"Every age has its fascism," writes former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the opening line of her book Fascism, published in 2018, when the ultra-right storm cloud was already taking on threatening shapes. Albright, of Czech origin and a victim of the Nazi occupation, equates fascism with "vacuum." And she wonders how much of a void will be necessary, even if it lands in our societies, for it to be sufficiently clear that ultra-right populism is fascism. A cry of warning as intense as that of the Dutch thinker Bob Riemen, who delves into the perversions caused by the economic collapse of 2008. Riemen speaks of societies that are abruptly awakening from the hedonistic dream, feeling hurt and cheated, and opting for the resentment and hatred it provides. And she concludes: "Today we can see that what is clearly a resurgence of fascism cannot yet be called by its name in our society."
Fascism, which includes Vladimir Putin's police regime, as the exiled journalist explains. Yelena Kostiuchenko in her book My beloved country"Russia is a fascist state, unfortunately. Fascism has slowly spread, but it has finally flourished with the war." In 1997, before becoming Putin's advisor, the national-communist philosopher Alexander Dugin was already writing about "red fascism without borders." The goal, therefore, would have been achieved.
