Earlier this month in London, more than 100,000 people took to the streets in “Unite the United Kingdom.”
Activist Tommy Robinson , with participants galvanized by two key issues: free speech and illegal immigration, part of a larger trend taking shape across Europe.
In an interview with The National News Desk, Garret Martin, a Hurst Senior Professorial lecturer at American University, said, “If there’s one key theme in common, it’s their worry, their concern, their opposition to immigration.”
In his on Tuesday, President Donald Trump seized on this changing reality, urging European leaders to change course.
“If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before, that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail you. You’re doing it because you want to be nice, you want to be politically correct and you’re destroying your heritage,” Trump said.
Already, the growing concerns among residents have for months been seeping into politics.
Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, once considered on the fringe, has been , ahead of the ruling Labour Party and well ahead of the Conservative Party, prompting at least one prominent conservative to jump ship.
Standing next to Farage during a September 15 event in London. MP Danny Kruger announced that he was leaving the Conservative Party and joining Reform.
“The conservative party is over; Over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the left,” he said.
While national elections are still years away, similar trends have been playing out in France, with the rise Marine Le Pen’s , a movement supported by Elon Musk, who at a recent rally they held and encouraged them, “Fight for a great future for Germany.”
“The three biggest countries in Europe – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, in polls for the next major election, have a far-right candidate in the lead. The word “unprecedented” is overused, but I think in this case it’s absolutely accurate,” Martin said.
He also suggested that social media has been a major asset to those in the populist parties, largely a result of being seen as outsiders. They often weren’t invited to appear in the mainstream media, which forced them to be early adopters of platforms like TikTok and X, and they were able to get their anti-elite, anti-establishment message out far faster to their millions of followers.