VENICE, Italy ¨C Until recently, the specter of an international far-right alliance of populist parties in democracies around the world has been just that: any appearance of cooperation was a form of self-promotion, rather than an expression of true solidarity. Few far-right figures have made any sacrifices for one another or seriously interfered in other countries¡¯ internal affairs to prop up allies. And efforts to unite the far right in the European Parliament have fallen dismally short.
But that may be changing. U.S. President Donald Trump¡¯s threat to impose punitive tariffs on Brazil, with the explicit goal of protecting its far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro, from a ¡°witch hunt,¡± marks a significant shift in tactics. What¡¯s more, Trump¡¯s meddling in other democracies in the name of ¡°free speech¡± serves powerful interests in the United States: tech companies that do not want to be regulated by foreign governments.
The international far right is often said to be a contradiction in terms. After all, every far-right leader is a nationalist, which would seem to preclude, by definition, an international alliance. But this view shows little philosophical sophistication or, for that matter, historical awareness.
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