OfLouis Ippolito
Nigel Farage, the soul of the referendum that led to Brexit, is running for election: for Great Britain it is an earthquake, because his party, Reform (the former Brexit Party) threatens to drastically erode the consensus of the Tories, with a Trumpian “takeover” of the conservative wing
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDON – Earthquake in British politics: Nigel FarageMr Brexit, has announced his candidacy in the political elections of 4 July, thus putting an end to weeks of speculation. It’s a move that can change the current race and potentially reshape all scenarios in London for years to come. “Yesterday I took the dog for a walk, I went fishing, then to the pub and I had the opportunity to reflect”, explained Farage: many people, he said, in recent days had stopped him on the street asking him why he wasn’t running and so he he concluded that he didn’t feel like “abandoning millions of people.”
At the same time, Farage he took back the leadership of Reform Party, the former Brexit Party he founded and of which until now he was only honorary president: the Reform was already above 10% in the polls, in third place after Labor and the Conservatives, but now with Farage leading the way it will end up multiplying the consensus. This is good news, paradoxically, for Labour, because Reform will steal consensus on the right from the Conservatives, who now risk a catastrophic defeat. Farage doesn’t think he can change the outcome of the elections: “Labour has already won”, he admitted; he rather aims to change the balance on the right. We are witnessing “the most boring electoral campaign ever”, declared Farage, with Labor and Conservatives who are now “the same thing”: neither of the two major parties, according to him, is able to stop mass immigration, reduce taxes and above all to reverse what he called the “decline” of Great Britain.
Not that Farage’s undertaking is easy: due to the British single-member electoral system, in the past he has failed seven times in his attempts to get elected to Westminster. This time, however, it could be different, because that rejection of the traditional political class that he denounced in his speech is something real: and therefore the Reform Party he might manage to elect a handful of MPs, including Farage. But in reality his ambitions go much further: he, although outside Parliament, has already been one of the most influential leaders of recent decades, having managed to impose the issue of leaving the European Union on the national political agenda. And now he could reshape the British right in his image: after the inevitable defeat, the surviving stump of the Conservative Party would become a land of conquest and it is not excluded that Farage could launch a takeover on the model of what Donald Trump did in America with the Republicans. There are many conservatives who think that the party should move vigorously to the right, perhaps even calling Boris Johnson back into service: and at their last conference Farage, who showed up as a surprise guest, was welcomed like a star.
The paradox is that in London they have always boasted of not having a right-wing populist party in Parliament, unlike what happens in all continental European countries: now that scenario could come to life from the ashes of a “faragized” conservative party. It would be the biggest realignment of British politics in more than a century, when the Liberals were supplanted by Labour: the beginning of a new era.
June 3, 2024 (modified June 3, 2024 | 6:03 pm)
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
