{"id":233381,"date":"2025-10-22T21:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/233381\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T21:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:05:09","slug":"welfare-cuts-are-fueling-the-rise-of-the-far-right-globally-the-un-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/233381\/","title":{"rendered":"Welfare cuts are fueling the rise of the far right globally, the UN finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

London
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Cuts to social protection for people living in poverty have created \u201cfertile ground\u201d for far-right movements around the world, according to a United Nations report.\n <\/p>\n

\n Popular support for the far right has grown globally in recent years. In Europe, Giorgia Meloni<\/a> became Italy\u2019s most far-right leader since Benito Mussolini in 2022, while the far-right Alternative for Germany<\/a> is now Germany\u2019s largest opposition party. The Trump administration has endorsed far-right parties<\/a> in Europe, and in Argentina far-right libertarian Javier Milei won the presidency in 2023.\n <\/p>\n

\n The UN report, unveiled Wednesday, says changes to welfare systems<\/a> have made it harder to access benefits by tightening eligibility rules or imposing stricter conditions, contributing to the kind of economic precarity and alienation that drives people to the far right.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese punitive welfare systems increase economic insecurity, erode trust in public institutions and leave millions feeling humiliated and abandoned by mainstream politics,\u201d the report\u2019s author, Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said in a press release<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is in this void that far-right populists thrive, presenting themselves as champions of those left behind by the \u2018elite.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But he warned: \u201cTheir agenda is not to empower people in poverty \u2013 it is to further dismantle protections for their own gain.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act<\/a> illustrates this type of \u201cpopulism of the privileged,\u201d the report argues. The package includes historic reductions to America\u2019s safety net programs, particularly Medicaid and food stamps, and at the same time slashes taxes, resulting \u201cin a massive transfer\u201d of resources from the poorest households to the richest.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Growing gaps in incomes are a \u201cmajor factor\u201d explaining the rise of right-wing populism, says the 19-page report, citing several studies, including one that established \u201can almost perfect correlation\u201d between income inequality and support for populist parties.\n <\/p>\n

\n The report also notes European Social Surveys \u2013 tracking public attitudes, beliefs and behavior \u2013 which show that there is a 25% chance unemployed people at the lowest levels of jobless benefits will vote for the far right versus 15% for those who are employed.\n <\/p>\n

\n Higher pension levels, better child allowances and minimum wage legislation also have a \u201cstatistically measurable impact\u201d in reducing the likelihood of a vote for the far right.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThousands of people in poverty I speak with tell me they feel stigmatized and monitored rather than supported,\u201d De Schutter said. \u201cUnless social protection is taken seriously as a human right, far-right populists will continue to reap what has been sown.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Cuts to social protection for people living in poverty have created \u201cfertile ground\u201d for far-right movements…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-233381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}