#Star wars rebellion ranks full

These include anti-immigration talk-show star Г‰ric Zemmour, who is sky-rocketing in the polls, as well as Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the nationalist Debout la France party, and Le PenвЂ™s estranged ally Florian Philippot, who have both espoused Covid conspiracy theories. In France, Marine Le Pen also risks being outflanked on her right by populist candidates who have taken more radical culture war stances.

Meanwhile, his more extreme rightwing competitor, Giorgia Meloni of post-fascist Brothers of Italy, has managed to gain support among anti-vaxxers by opposing the Green Pass and defending вЂњfreedom of choiceвЂќ. In Italy, Matteo Salvini of the League party has faced heavy criticism from Covid sceptics for supporting a government which is enforcing vaccination passports вЂ“ a programme called Green Pass. In August, Donald Trump was booed by supporters at a rally in Alabama, after recommending they get the jab. Yet, in many countries the populist right is now finding itself at odds with a movement it has fuelled, but cannot control any more. But to his right, Nigel Farage and some Tory MPs continued to dally with Covid scepticism.

In the UK, Johnson took a more pragmatic mainstream stance after briefly favouring herd immunity.

#Star wars rebellion ranks full

In the US, Donald Trump went into full conspiracy mode, suggesting that bleach may be a cure for Covid. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro described Covid as вЂњlittle fluвЂќ, and to this day continues to claim he has not been vaccinated, though nobody knows for sure.

Populist right leaders were quick to take advantage of this, seeing in Covid scepticism yet another opportunity to show the gulf between the priorities of progressives and ordinary people. The emergency unleashed a flood of disparate conspiracy theories about the virus and vaccines that spread rapidly on social media, while вЂњanti-maskвЂќ and вЂњanti-lockdownвЂќ protest movements framed contagion prevention measures as a вЂњhealth dictatorshipвЂќ. But it may be one that the right will end up regretting. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the pandemic has become yet another stage for the culture war. The plan worked: culture war tactics were instrumental in the right gaining support among disgruntled workers increasingly suspicious of a centre-left that had little to offer in terms of socio-economic policies. It claimed that, by dint of their alleged control of the media and academia, unpatriotic and elitist progressives were imposing radical changes вЂ“ like openness to immigration and the demolition of the traditional family вЂ“ against majority will. In the ensuing decades, the right closely adopted the strategy proposed by Buchanan. вЂњThis war is for the soul of America, вЂќ Buchanan said, and called on fellow citizens to вЂњtake back our culture, and take back our countryвЂќ. Campaigns for environmentalism, abortion and LGBT rights werenвЂ™t just about policy, he claimed, but were in fact intended to destroy wider American traditions and identity. A t the 1992 US Republican convention, the paleoconservative pundit and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan introduced the world to the idea that politics had become a вЂњculture warвЂќ between progressives and conservatives.