European Democracies Face a Closing Window to Resist Far-Right Convergence with Maga and Kremlin Influence
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rafaelbehr. "European democracies are running out of time to turn away from the abyss | Rafael Behr | The Guardian." September 9, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Behr argues that far-right parties across Europe—boosted by Trump-world figures like Musk and Vance, and shadowed by Kremlin sympathies—are converging to undermine European liberal democracy, and that this moment is uniquely dangerous because even Germany, which built strong safeguards against extremism, is now electing far-right parties. He warns time is running short to stop this slide, but insists it's not inevitable since nationalists are disorganized and rivalrous, leaving room for democratic forces to push back.
Conclusion
European liberal democracies are running out of time to reverse a coordinated far-right surge—fueled by Maga ideology and Kremlin money—that threatens to suffocate liberal idealism for another generation, though this outcome is not inevitable if countervailing forces are mustered.
Premises
- The AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt is especially alarming because Germany, more than any other country, built systematic post-war institutions (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) to inoculate itself against extremism, yet the AfD knowingly repudiates that atonement while flirting with Nazi imagery and racist nationalism.
- US-based Maga figures (Musk, Vance, Trump's national security strategy) actively endorse and amplify European far-right parties like the AfD, treating them as aligned 'patriotic resistance' movements against immigration-driven 'civilisational erasure.'
- Proximity to Kremlin sympathies is a reliable marker of far-right fanaticism across Europe, as seen in AfD's Putin-friendly stance and precedents like Reform's Nathan Gill being jailed for pro-Russian bribery.
- Mainstream-seeking far-right leaders (Le Pen, Farage) are being pulled further right by competition with more extreme actors (Robinson, Lowe, AfD) and by the pull of Maga-aligned digital ecosystems, complicating their efforts to appear moderate.
- European nationalists increasingly aim not to leave the EU (as Brexit did, with visibly poor results) but to capture and transform it from within, which Behr argues amounts to the same destructive outcome as destroying it.
- Despite rivalries and lack of unity among nationalist movements, their convergence via shared ideology, money, and mutual reinforcement is creating a real and urgent threat to liberal democratic norms.
Assumptions
- Liberal idealism and 'tolerance and conciliation' are inherently fragile and cyclically vulnerable to nationalist backlash.
- The AfD, Reform UK, RN, and Maga-aligned actors share enough ideological and strategic overlap to be treated as a coordinated (even if not fully unified) threat.
- Historical parallels (Zweig's Vienna, WWII-era fascism) are directly instructive for understanding contemporary far-right politics.
- Kremlin financial or rhetorical support meaningfully drives or correlates with far-right extremism rather than being incidental.
- Capturing EU institutions from within is functionally equivalent to destroying the European liberal project.
- There remains a meaningful window of opportunity for 'countervailing forces' to act before the situation becomes irreversible.