Academics Benjamin Selwyn, Dr Michael Esser, and William Ward have highlighted the role of the liberal centre in creating conditions for the rise of far-right parties in Europe, including Germany and Britain.
Professor Benjamin Selwyn of the University of Sussex stated that while Thatcher and Reagan weakened trade unions, subsequent centre-left governments largely accepted these changes. He argued that under the "third way", these governments expanded labour market insecurity, embraced financialisation, and allowed private interests to deepen their penetration into public services, leading to increased social and economic inequality.
Dr Michael Esser, based in Los Angeles, California, suggested that Germany's crisis began with the suppression of authentic reckoning, allowing former Nazi party members to dominate state institutions until the 1970s. He added that a top-down, state-directed remembrance culture emerged, which was later forced upon populations in eastern states like Saxony-Anhalt after the 1989 market shock. Esser believes this abandonment, combined with an ageing demographic and economic stagnation, has allowed the AfD to exploit anger and channel economic angst into xenophobic nationalism.
The academics' discussion follows a warning from Rafael Behr that far-right parties, Maga ideology, and Kremlin influence pose a threat to Europe's liberal democracies.