The Russian-Ukrainian war, which has been going on for more than a week, has put the largest far-right movements in Europe in a critical position, between their ideological closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and their solidarity with Ukraine. At the same time, these right-wing forces attribute the responsibility for the ongoing war to the Western powers.
There is no doubt that the leaders of all these right-wing forces in all European Union countries, from Germany to France, passing through Italy, Austria and Spain, have unequivocally condemned Russia's war on Ukraine, which NATO leaders describe as "Putin's war." .
In France, National Front leader Marine Le Pen denounced the war in Ukraine, saying it was an "indefensible violation of international law".
In Italy, although the leader of the right-wing League, Matteo Salvini, does not generally hesitate to express his admiration for Putin, he declared that "when (the Russian president) attacks someone, it is clear that one should stand by the one who is under attack."
Hago Funke, professor of political science at the Free University of Berlin, believes that these right-wing currents "this time took a position in line with the position of other parties, and in particular with the enormous solidarity shown by public opinion around the world towards Ukrainians."
blame the west
However, when examining who is responsible for the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the far-right parties seem to identify with the Russian narrative.
In Germany, Alice Weidel, leader of the Parliamentary bloc of the Alternative for Germany party, denounced what she described as the "historic failure" of the West, which threatened Ukraine with the possibility of joining NATO, instead of calling for a solution in this country based on its neutrality between the West and Russia.
Weidel saw that this approach of the West is due to the denial of "Russia's status as a major power."
In France, Eric Zemmour, one of the most prominent symbols of the far right and a candidate for the presidential elections, said that "the culprit (what is happening in Ukraine) is Putin, and the responsible is NATO, which has not stopped expanding."
Political expert Wolfgang Schroeder of Germany's Kassel University argues that these right-wing parties actually converge with "Russian positions that estimate that the current conflict cannot be attributed to Vladimir Putin alone, but rather a large part of it can be attributed to the West."
In Greece, the leader of the Nationalist Solution Party, Kyriakos Vilopoulos, expressed his rejection of the position of the Western powers that Russia launched an unjustified war on Ukraine, because Moscow was not under threat. “If Russia is not threatened, then what does NATO do at its borders?” Vilopoulos said.
In the same direction, Thierry Bodet, leader of the Dutch Forum for Democracy (a far-right party), said, "Russia had no choice in my opinion," commenting on Moscow's launch of war on its western neighbor, and Bodet's statement drew criticism from other Dutch parties, which accused him of promoting Russian propaganda.
It is clear that the symbols of the far-right movement in Europe who have been getting close to Putin in recent years, are now finding it difficult to take a distance from him today. "Putin today is not the same one I met in Moscow in 2017."
loss of influence
Funke believes in a statement to Agence France-Presse that "the European far right is in a dilemma, between its extremist and neo-fascist ideology, which it shares with Putin, and the danger of diminishing its influence in public opinion."
The challenge is particularly difficult for Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, who polls expect to win a third of the votes in the French presidential elections scheduled for next April, while support for the Alternative for Germany has fallen below 10%, according to an opinion poll. conducted recently.
In a striking concession, some of these staunchly anti-immigrant right-wing parties - the National Front, the Alternative for Germany, the Spanish nationalist Fox, and a section of the Austrian Freedom Party - have supported taking in Ukrainian refugees fleeing the fighting in their country.