The Left at its lowest rates worldwide after the Cold War – A Worried Rise of the Far Right

The left suffered a record percentage in the fall of the average vote, gathering only 45.4 percent in the last election of every democracy, according to its analysis of the election in 73 republics. The right parties, on the other hand, emerged worldwide winners. More than 1.5 billion people voted Right in more than 70 countries in 2024, the largest number recorded in a year. Telegraph’s analysis comes after a year of conservatives’ election triumphs around the world, with Donald Trump’s election as president being “primary”. U.S.-Europe After the inauguration of Mr. Trump this month, further losses are expected to be caused in the Left in Canada, Australia and Germany, the EU’s largest economy. In Western Europe and the US, the parties of the Left secured only 42.3% of the vote, while the Right won 55.7 percent, which represents the biggest difference in the vote share since 1990. Meanwhile, the tough Right scored a high percentage of votes – a record of 14.7 percent after the good performance of radical politicians in the elections from France to Panama. CORVERSE The collapse of the Left can be reflected even in Latin America, a stronghold of socialism after years of violent fascist dictatorships. “The trend is rising. There is no real reason to expect it to stop soon,” said Professor Matthijs Rouduijn, a political scientist from the University of Amsterdam. Jeremy Cliffe, editor and senior policy partner at the European External Relations Council, said the global turn to the right was the result of three interrelated trends: “The decline of organised labour due to globalisation, increasing identity policies have exploited more successfully than the Right rather than the Left and a general tendency among left-wing forces to break up rather than unite.” USA Trump won the popular vote in the November American election, receiving 77 million votes against 75 million for Democratic Kamala Harris Canada Polls show that Pierre Poilievre, a populist called “Trump of Canada, ” is the favourite to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister, after the liberal heartbreaker resigned earlier this month. Europe The right-wing parties in Europe opened an almost historic gap with left-wing opponents nearly 14 percent in the most recent elections. In Western Europe, the Right had the lead, scoring an average – record in votes with 13.9 percent after votes in France, Austria, Germany and elsewhere. Voters throughout the EU gave the overall victory to the centre-right parties in the June European Parliament elections, but the Alternative for Germany (AfD), France’s National Reconciliation and Austria’s Freedom Party also celebrated big profits. Emanuel Macron’s decision to announce early parliamentary elections following the victory of the National rally of Marin Lepin in the EU in France left French politics in disorder and Mr Macron a lame president. The National Conspiracy was unable to seize power only by a coalition from all left parties. But Mrs Lepin’s party is the largest in the assembly and overturned the new minority government after just three months. In Austria, the far right-wing Freedom Party that is in favour of Putin first won the general election and is now expected to form a coalition government. In Germany, the conservative CDU is expected to win the February general election. The far right AfD is in the second vote ahead of the Social Democratic Party of unpopular left chancellor Olaf Solz. Last year, AfD won the state election, the first far-right party to do so in Germany after World War II and the fall of the German Nazi party. 2024 was the worst year for Left parties in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The centre right won in Croatia and Bulgaria . The far right won the partially cancelled now elections in Romania. In the Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš, a populist far-right businessman who tried to imitate Mr Trump, is expected to win the election this year. The latest poll shows that his party receives 33 percent of the vote compared to the left’s second second with 19 percent. Experts said that the success of the populist Right is due to the hardening of anti-migration attitudes in Europe. Radical policies were also becoming more and more normalized after their poaching by the conservatives of the establishment, they said. Professor Rooduijn said hard right parties are becoming increasingly professional. Social media has also greatly facilitated foreign politicians to communicate directly with citizens. Argentina The suffocation of the Left in Latin American politics since the late 2000s has been weakened after victories of leaders such as Argentine Javier Milei. After the 2024 election, the Left’s vote rate rose to 51.6%, the lowest in more than 30 years. The average vote of the Right remains at 40% as of 2018. That same year, Milei, Mr Trump’s ally, became president of Argentina with promises to cut the public sector. He will face interim elections in 2025, but so far his party has a good performance in polls. Paraguay In 2023, Paraguay elected conservative Santiago Peña and Ecuador chose centre-right candidate Daniel Noboa. According to Dr. Christopher Sabatini, senior researcher for Latin America, the US and America’s Chatham House Programme, the left parties have seen their share of votes reduced as a result of the incompetence of government, excessive promises and corruption. “In the last two decades, voters’ concerns about crime and violence have been launched … This is an area in which the Left has failed to produce many results or a sustainable response,” he said. Brazil Zaire Bolsonaru – the “Trump of Tropicals” – lost the election in 2022, but his party remains the largest in Brazil’s parliament. Latin America is traditionally treated by the US with a practical interventionist stance, but the presence of more right-wing and populist leaders will change that. “It will be a much more party politics that will favor, if you like, the “Minnie Trumps, ” said Dr. Sabatini. Asia – Australia The Right retained its dominance in politics in Asia and Australia, with a 55.6% vote share, its highest average since 2017. Jasida Ardern, the left Prime Minister of New Zealand, resigned in 2023 and was replaced by Christopher Luxon, leader of the centre-right National Party. At the same time, in Australia, the right-wing Liberal-National coalition has preceded the polls before the election this year. Last year, Japan’s Right Liberal Democratic Party lost its majority, but the rise of younger, smaller far-right parties helped push the country’s right-wing vote share to 63.87%. In India, the world’s largest democracy, Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were elected for the third time in June. However, the coalition of the centre opposition and the centre-left Indian National Congress experienced an increase in the vote share. BJP’s share of seats declined, but as a result of election agreements with coalition partners, its total share of votes declined by less than 1 per cent. Some critics describe the BJP as a hard right because of its Hindu nationalist rhetoric. The emerging superpower China, a major player in the region, is not a democracy and so the communist country was not part of the analysis Africa – Middle East In the eight republics of Africa and the Middle East, the share of the Left’s vote fell to its historic low of 54.2 percent in 2024. For much of the past 30 years, the average share of leftist parties has always been over 60 percent, but this has declined after years of financial mismanagement. In South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, the centre-left African National Congress failed to win the parliamentary majority it held since the first election after apartheid in 1994. Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party has been in power in Israel since 2020. The next election will not be held for another two years, but Likud, which joins four far-right parties, continues to lead in the polls, despite Mr Netanyahu’s handling Gaza and the hostage crisis after Hamas’s terrorist attack on 7 October 2023. Britain overthrows the trend? The overwhelming Labour victory in the UK was one of the few Left triumphs in 2024. But it is fleeting. The first YouGov/Times vote survey following the general election shows a close confrontation between Labour and Reform UK. The Labour Party gets only 26 percent of the vote while Reform UK receives 25 percent. The Conservative Party is far back in third place, receiving 22 percent. The poll comes six months after the 2024 general election in which Sir Keir Starmer took power. Only a weak majority – 54 percent – of Labour Party voters continue to say he will support his party in other elections.