Verbatim report of proceedings

Monday, 12 November 2018 - Strasbourg

One-minute speeches on matters of political importance

  Lynn Boylan (GUE/NGL). – Madam President, there has been lots of talk about the rise of right—wing populism and how the Centre must hold in next year’s elections. Well, last month, Ireland had its first test of right—wing politics, and while the vast majority of the electorate rejected it, we cannot ignore that 23.1% chose to vote for a candidate that preached division. This time, it wasn’t anti-refugee or anti-Islam, but instead he chose to target the traveller community and those on social welfare.

Those of us who believe in equality must stand up and make our voices heard in rejecting the politics of hate and fear, and we must call it out wherever it manifest itself. But we must also address the root causes of discontent among those who vote for such candidates. Lack of housing, insecure work, and the politics of pitting one group of individuals against another are simply the outworkings of the neoliberal economic model loved by the so-called ‘centrist’ parties in this House. If we really want to defeat right—wing populism, then we must defeat centrist politics.