RISHI SUNAK might have just narrowly escaped defeat in his crunch vote on sending illegal migrants in Britain to Rwanda but he is not the only Western leader to be grappling with the escalating effects of immigration.
Take a step back and look at the latest elections and polls across the West and the message is crystal clear — parties which take a firm line on immigration, which want to lower the number of immigrants, strengthen their country’s borders and push back against the pro-immigration woke left are now thriving, often enjoying their best ever results.
PAIn Britain, despite leaders promising to slash immigration net migration has now soared to a record high of more than 700,000[/caption]
AlamyIn Germany the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party is now riding high in second place in the polls[/caption]
In the Netherlands, most recently, the anti-immigrant Geert Wilders just polled his best ever result, gaining support from one in four voters.
In Germany, where post-war taboos once made it socially unacceptable to question immigration, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party is now riding high in second place in the polls and is on its way to becoming the strongest force in the east of the country.
In Italy, Finland, France and Sweden it is the same story, with the most recent elections handing national populists their strongest ever results.
Elsewhere, as in Austria, Hungary, Portugal and Spain, similar parties are either breaking through for the first time or dominating the polls.
In fact, across the European Union as a whole, where next year 400million voters will go to the polls to elect their representatives in the European Parliament, the latest polls also suggest a sharp rightward turn, with parties firmly opposed to mass immigration set to become the third largest group in Brussels.
EU bureaucrats might have laughed at Brexit but now they too are failing to contain the same backlash among voters against out-of-touch, pro-immigration elites.
Look further afield, too, and you will find the same kind of anti-elite, anti-immigration and anti-woke mindset taking root among disillusioned and despondent voters fed up with a ruling class that no longer seems to share their concern about how their country is being upended.
In Argentina, voters have just rallied behind the strongly anti-socialist, anti-woke and anti-elite Javier Milei.
In Australia, they rejected a plan among elites to wire the divisive woke ideology into their national constitution.
And in America, ahead of the crunch presidential election next year, and despite continual attempts to divert Donald Trump from the campaign trail into the courts, Trump is now leading Joe Biden in the latest national and state polls.
In one, from the swing state of Michigan, Trump is ten points ahead of his Democrat rival.
AFPMigrants’ tents at a camp on the outskirts of Calais, northern France[/caption]
Rishi Sunak is not the only Western leader to be grappling with the escalating effects of immigrationRex
What is all this telling us?
It’s telling us that, nearly a decade on from the seismic Brexit and Trump revolts in 2016, the liberal elites who dominate the corridors of power, who control the political, media, creative, educational and cultural institutions, still have not figured out how to address the concerns held by millions of ordinary people.
In both Europe and America, they have failed to resolve escalating refugee and immigration crises, refusing to take the tough and sustained action required to keep their own citizens safe and deter millions more migrants from risking their lives.
In America, under the Democrats, for the past two years more than two million people have crossed illegally into the country, with 2023 witnessing a record high.
Across the EU, more than one million asylum seekers and illegal migrants have arrived this year, the biggest number since the refugee crisis erupted in 2015.
And here in Britain, despite leaders promising to slash immigration and “stop the boats”, net migration has now soared to a record high of more than 700,000.
This week the Home Office admitted the illegal boats will keep coming until “at least” the year 2034 at a cost to the British taxpayer of some £700million.
Labour and Sir Keir Starmer may currently be ahead in the polls, but he has no plan worthy of the name on immigration.
Indeed, he once described immigration controls as having a “racist undercurrent”.
This is not a hard puzzle to solve.
As the number of legal and illegal immigrants has sharply increased — bringing with them very different values, cultural practices and beliefs — so too has the number of people who are questioning, for good reason, what is happening to their communities, their country, their ways of life and their leaders who are supposed to keep them safe and secure.
United by a palpable feeling that, today, none of the big parties have a serious plan for dealing with this mounting crisis, many voters are switching to national populists who demand much tougher action — or simply giving up on politics altogether.
All they want is to live in a safe and secure country where their borders are strong, immigration is lowered so that their distinctive identity and culture can be preserved, and where their democratically elected leaders put the wishes of their fellow citizens ahead of the wishes of strangers.
It’s not too much to ask, is it?
AFPIn America, under the Democrats, for the past two years more than two million people have crossed illegally into the country[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
