Alternative for Germany has joined France’s National Rally and Reform U.K. in becoming the most popular party in its country, according to polls.

A poll Tuesday showed Alternative for Germany — which is under surveillance by the country’s intelligence services over suspected extremism — is now the most favored by voters. The survey by broadcaster RTL put the AfD at 26%, ahead of the ruling Christian Democrats at 24%.

This is a high watermark for the European far right, a once fringe movement whose virulently anti-immigration, anti-Islam and culture-war politics were shunned by the mainstream just a decade ago.

Today, these parties have developed deep ties with President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, who openly cite nationalists such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as inspirations on policy and tactics.

  • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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    11 days ago

    Right after WW2 pretty much every European country that still had colonial holdings in the Americas, Africa, and Asia went straight back to ruling them with a iron fist.

    Colonialism largely collapsed after WW2, with the unwinding of the British Empire (what’s left largely consists of Gibraltar and the Falklands) and the end of French dominance in Algeria and Vietnam. It was US policy after WW2 to support decolonization.

    Imperialism remained, but more as an arms-length interference in the politics of former colonies (especially by the French in Africa).

    because the minority groups were much smaller in number compared to the US

    Like the Catalans, Basques and Galicians in Spain, who together comprise 13 million of Spain’s 48.7 million population? The same could be said of groups in a number of other European countries.

    Minorities were politically irrelevant until the past couple decades

    I think you’re specifically referring to immigrant-descended minorities. They’re not the only ethnic minority groups within a country-- almost all countries have long-term ethnic minority groups as well as descendants of relatively recent arrivals.