United States | News & Politics

The boost in support in the far right is concerning in Europe however it is also over reported and the media often fails to understand the political systems.

Most European countries have proportional representation.

In Germany AFD won 16% of the vote. They came joint second which made headlines but 16% is low. Worst case is they could conceivably join a coalition in a split Bundestag. But AFD are not currently realistically close to power.

In France, the far right was 33% of the vote, again making headlines and troubling. However that is in the first round. France has a second round where the 67% can coalesce around candidates. It's troubling but the far right is not getting a majority in the French parliament, and it remains unlikely they would won the presidency as the left and centre out weigh them.

In the UK Reform is polling around the same level as the Conservatives at about 18%. In the UK's system its first past the post so it looks like they're get a few seats at most - literally 5 - put of 650 seats. The UK is looking very likely to elect a centre left party to power with a huge majority, mainly due to the implosion of the conservative party.

While these are all concerning and reflect lots of local trends, there is a huge difference with the US. In the US the republican party is viable for the presidency, the house and the senate and already hold the supreme court.

The US is in a far worse position than almost any European country when it comes to the extreme party being at the doors of power. Europe has much work to do, but the US is fucked because its much vaunted electoral system and constitution has been shown to be extremely weak and fatally flawed, and seems to be unfixable.