Brussels, Paris, 16 July 2024. Far-right parties now sit in nearly a quarter of the 27 EU Member States’ governments. Very concretely, the extreme right in power means a limitation of rights and freedoms for all, especially for the most vulnerable. The weakening of democratic counter-powers is underway, resulting in a serious attack on the independence of the press and repeated attempts to undermine judicial institutions delivering justice to people. Civil society is threatened and fundamental rights and freedoms are attacked. Aggression increases against political, religious, and conscience freedoms, against the right of association and peaceful assembly. Linguistic rights, sexual and reproductive rights of women, and the right to a healthy environment are at risk. This applies to different degrees in ’illiberal’ States and consolidated democracies alike. A shrinking of civic, democratic space and a rule of law backsliding without precedent in the history of a united Europe, can lead to injustice and reverse the progress made towards the realisation of a common area of freedom, justice, and peace over the past 70 years.
"The rise of the far right in Europe, as elsewhere in the world, is far from inevitable. We must wage a relentless, daily fight for our freedoms, for the ideal of universal dignity: the ’Other’ deserves to have rights, because he is, she is my equal, especially as recognising this does not take away any of my rights", says Alexis Deswaef, FIDH Vice-President. "Tirelessly recalling this fundamental principle, proclaiming it, fighting for it is the very essence of human rights. All human beings are born free and equal in rights and dignity. The far right is the negation of this very idea."
Radical populism is fed by deep social frustrations arising from a period of great political and economic instability and a growing distrust in public institutions. Far from providing an adequate response to such legitimate frustrations, the rise of the extreme right represents a fatal threat to rights and democracy, in particular to the principles of justice, equality, fraternity, and solidarity which such political forces are the very antithesis of.
In the face of a widespread political, social, and environmental emergency, FIDH urges newly elected Members of the European Parliament, the other EU institutions, civil society, and EU people to stand together and use all the means at their disposal to defend human rights and democratic principles against those who threaten to destroy them, in Europe and abroad.