When mainstream parties stop resisting radical ideologies, extremism changes lanes and enters from within.
Berlin, Germany — September 2025
Thomas Greven, political scientist at the Free University of Berlin and a leading scholar on the radical right, warns that what once worked as a protective barrier against extremism in Europe has now collapsed. Germany has become the most recent stage of this fracture: in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) tripled its vote share in local elections, reflecting structural discontent fueled by economic crisis, migration, and a perceived loss of political identity among citizens who feel abandoned by mainstream parties. Greven argues that radicalism no longer acts from the margins but has begun to penetrate institutions that once kept it at bay.
According to Greven, progressive forces are in retreat, their narrative losing strength against simpler, sharper messages that appeal to fear, scapegoating, and economic insecurity. Social democratic and conservative parties are not only confronting the populist far right but, in trying to contain it, often adopting fragments of its rhetoric. This, he insists, creates an implicit legitimization of those promising radical ruptures.
El canciller alemán, Friedrich Merz, observa mientras la colíder de Alternativa para Alemania (AfD), Alice Weidel, habla durante una sesión en la cámara baja del parlamento alemán, Bundestag. (REUTERS/Annegret Hilse)
Greven highlights that the transformation is no longer confined to isolated elections; instead, it manifests through international cooperation among far-right movements sharing tactics, narratives, and networks of influence. In his recent book, he documents how xenophobic nationalism, cultural authoritarianism, moral traditionalism, and rejection of pluralism converge into a heterogeneous but coordinated block advancing across Europe and beyond. While their discourses differ, their strategies align whenever opportunities for political pressure arise.
The removal of the so-called “cordon sanitaire” is already evident in the European Parliament, where radical forces share space with traditional conservatives who no longer demonize them but sometimes even engage in tactical alliances. Governments in Hungary, Italy, and Poland reinforce nationalist narratives while steadily eroding freedoms, with leaders like Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orbán balancing between membership in a unified Europe and exploitation of anti-immigrant sentiment at home. Greven warns that if France were to elect a far-right president, it would signify the definitive collapse of Europe’s liberal political framework.
Still, he emphasizes that not all is lost. There remain opportunities to reclaim democratic resistance: active progressive networks, international solidarity, and civic activism. But he insists these forces must articulate a clear narrative rooted in social justice, equality, and protection against fear. Traditional left-wing and center-left parties must embrace their own positions rather than mimic their adversaries. Falling into reactionary traps will only fuel the far right further; the answer must be original visions that reframe the future.
Greven underscores that crises—economic, migratory, cultural, and energy-related—are being effectively exploited by those offering simple answers. Even when these answers are unworkable, their appeal rises in contexts where inequalities deepen and where many feel excluded from the institutional order. It is in this vacuum that radical movements gain strength, offering the illusion of clarity in chaos.
For Greven, political change will not occur unless public trust is renewed, communities are rebuilt, and solutions go beyond mere defense of institutions. Policy responses must reconnect with citizens: affordable housing, cultural inclusion, equitable security, and credible justice. Only concrete actions can dismantle the far right’s narrative that democracy is a hollow promise.
He concludes that liberal democracy is not doomed: “It is man-made, so its defeat is not inevitable.” Yet its survival demands conscious effort: confronting the seductive simplicity of extremist rhetoric with the difficult complexity of real solutions, reconstructing what polarization has destroyed, and repairing what institutional erosion has weakened.
Behind every data point, there’s an intention. Behind every silence, a structure.