Don’t fall for the authoritarian hype – Reform and the hard right can be stopped in their tracks | Gordon Brown

<p>From the US to Europe and Asia, grievances are being exploited to gain power. But moderate voices are still in tune with the majority</p><ul><li><p>Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010</p></li></ul><p>Nigel Farage portrays his Reform UK party as a unique phenomenon that has burst on to the global stage, its meteoric rise an exceptional epochal event. But this week, in every one of Europe’s major countries and from India and Thailand to the US and Argentina, hard-right, anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation parties like his are also ahead in the opinion polls.</p><p>In last Saturday’s Czech elections, the rightwing, pro-Putin populist Andrej Babiš <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/czechs-vote-frontrunner-babis-promises-lavish-spending-less-ukraine-support-2025-10-02/">toppled prime minister </a>Petr Fiala. <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/france/">National Rally</a>, which has just brought down yet another <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/08/francois-bayrou-ousted-as-french-pm-after-losing-confidence-vote">French prime minister</a>, is leading the polls for both the French presidency and parliament. In Germany, the <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/germany/">far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)</a> is currently the most popular party. Hungary’s Fidesz party, Robert Fico’s pro-Russian Slovakian coalition and the Brothers of Italy are already in government, while the <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/austria/">Freedom party of Austria</a> (FPÖ), the Netherlands’ <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/netherlands/">Freedom party</a> (PVV) and Belgium’s <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/belgium/">Vlaams Belang<