\u201cYou can win an election, but if you\u2019re not prepared for its consequences, then you become your worst enemy,\u201d he said during a two-hour conversation in his paper-strewn office. \u201cYou basically risk being doomed forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across Europe, the movements Furedi is talking about are already testing the political mainstream. Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform Party is surging in Britain, Marine Le Pen\u2019s National Rally has a real shot at the French presidency, and the Alternative for Germany is consistently at or near the top of polls. In Italy and Hungary, Giorgia Meloni and Orb\u00e1n have already shown what populists in power can look like.<\/p>\n
Inside his house in Faversham, the conversation turned from Europe\u2019s populist surge to the ideas that might shape what comes next. As Furedi led the way up the stairs, a yapping cockerpoo was hauled away into some back room. At the top of the staircase was a framed poster of Hannah Arendt, the philosopher who understood the attraction of radical political movements for the disenfranchised and alienated \u2014 and the potential for those movements to veer into evil.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2265256603-1024x683.jpg\")
Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform Party is surging in Britain, Marine Le Pen\u2019s National Rally has a real shot at the French presidency, and the Alternative for Germany is consistently at or near the top of polls. | Nicolas Guyonnet\/Hans Lucas\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
But Furedi isn\u2019t worried about a return of European totalitarianism \u2014 if anything, he thinks the current regime is where freedom of thought and speech are being crushed. His real fear is that Europe\u2019s right-wingers arrive in power unprepared \u2014 failing to learn from the experience of the U.S. MAGA movement, which almost blew its chance after Donald Trump won power in 2016 but couldn\u2019t execute a coherent vision for government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a real demand for something different,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the collapse of the old order, which is really what\u2019s exciting.\u201d But while Furedi is eager to watch it all burn down, he\u2019s unconvinced by the right-wing parties carrying the torches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, all politics is negative,\u201d he said, noting two exceptions where the right has managed to govern with stability: Meloni and Orb\u00e1n.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou can win an election, but if you\u2019re not prepared for its consequences, then you become your worst…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18172,556,6229,628,141,461,2955,167902,59,145,1347,57,58,12336,74593,1348,2795,9084,479,9138,2962,467,50,633,938,470,473,426,56,54,158,55,86732],"class_list":["post-469025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-abortion","tag-climate-change","tag-communications","tag-democracy","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-far-right","tag-french-eu-presidency","tag-gb","tag-germany","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-higher-education","tag-holocaust","tag-hungary","tag-immigration","tag-israel","tag-italy","tag-lgbtq","tag-marine-le-pen","tag-markets","tag-news","tag-nigel-farage","tag-refugees","tag-rights","tag-tanks","tag-trade","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-viktor-orban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}