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THE RISK REPORT
The E.U.’s far right struggles to govern TECHNOLOGY

By Ian Bremmer What a gender-
swapping filter

doesn’t show
iT’s a big momenT the far-right opposition Alternative for
for Europe’s most Germany party from pulling away her A new filter on Snapchat
ambitious populists. party’s voters in part by tacking to the lets users alter images
They hope that elec- right on the immigration policies that of themselves to look
tions for the European have undermined Merkel’s popularity. like a different gender,
Parliament will give But she has also tried to force Merkel into spawning countless jokes
them the boost they early retirement, a plan that has backfired across social media.
need to extend their political momentum and now threatens her position within Snapchat says the feature
across the E.U. But in Austria they got off her party. is intended to help users
to a rough start because of an embarrass- In France and Italy, center-right express themselves. But
ing video. parties have made poor attempts to for the trans and nonbinary
The details of that case are as imitate anti-E.U. and anti-migrant community, it’s more
ludicrous as they are damning. Vice language and policies that alienate complicated.
Chancellor and leader of the far-right centrist voters and make them appear “My first thought was,
Freedom Party Heinz-Christian Strache to be pale imitations of more aggressive ‘Oh my gosh, this is going
was caught offering lucrative conservative rivals, who to make so many people
government contracts to a For many, benefit by the comparison. In realize they’re trans!’” Cat
woman he believed to be the the video Spain, the rise of the populist Graffam, an artist and trans
woman, says. “You’re able
niece of a powerful Russian Vox party has pulled the more to see yourself in a way you
oligarch in exchange for confirmed moderate People’s Party and didn’t think was possible.”
her willingness to buy an that much Ciudadanos party to the right, But Graffam also found
Austrian newspaper and of Europe’s splitting the right-wing vote the feature that allowed
shift its editorial position to far right in ways that helped a center- her to see herself as a
favor his party just before is, or would left party finish first in the man “unsettling” because
an election. For many, this like to be, on country’s most recent national she’s “spent the past five
episode confirmed two things: the Russian elections. years trying to feminize my
much of Europe’s far right payroll But still the glaring, and appearance.”
is, or would like to be, on most consequential, example Andre Cavalcante, a
the Russian payroll, and of a center-right party’s professor at the University
its charismatic leaders lack basic good miscalculating how best to manage a of Virginia who studies
judgment. challenge from the right comes from the the media and gender,
The next development says some- decision by then Prime Minister David writes in an email that he
thing about the predicament facing Cameron to beat back criticism from worries about how the
center-right parties as they try to beat the fledgling U.K. Independence Party filter oversimplifies gender.
back attempts by the far right to steal by calling for a public referendum on “Men have broad chins
their voters. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Britain’s continued membership in the and facial hair. Women are
posed in soft lighting (for no
chairman of the center-right Austrian E.U. The punishment his Conservative apparent reason) and have
People’s Party, spotting an opportunity Party has taken following the Brexit small, delicate features,”
to test its far-right coalition partner with vote and the inability to deliver on its he says. “In this way, gender
voters, called for new elections. That’s result has only just begun. An angry is reduced to a mask or a
smart politics, but while the result may Briton doused Brexit champion Nigel costume, something that
temporarily strengthen the center right Farage with a banana and salted- can change with (literally) a
at the far right’s expense, it doesn’t solve caramel milkshake on May 20, but it’s snap.” —Tara Law
the larger problem that voters are anxious the Conservatives who are taking the
and angry at mainstream politicians who biggest hit.
they believe don’t have their best inter- Europe’s populists are so far better at
ests at heart. campaigning than at governing, and some
Across Europe, mainstream of its leaders are more prone to poor judg-
conservatives continue to wrestle with ment than their mainstream competitors.
this problem, but they would be wise to But far-right politicians haven’t simply
do so carefully. In Germany, Annegret invented anti-E.U., anti-migrant anger,
Kramp-Karrenbauer, Chancellor Merkel’s and those who would deny them votes
likely successor, has tried to prevent still struggle to answer this challenge. 