A panel of Professors Julia Buxton (SPP), Sandor Nagy (Corvinus) and visiting Erasmus teaching fellow Jorge Nallim (University of Manitoba) considered the return of the political right in Latin America. The event drew a large audience, including the much welcomed attendance of students from Corvinus. Buxton opened the discussion by emphasizing the value of analysing Latin American developments – both for comparative purposes, but also because the region is undergoing dramatic realignment. She contextualized the return to power of the right as influenced by popular disillusionment with the so called ‘Pink Tide’ of centre left governments that took power in countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Brazil in the 2000s.
As the commodity boom that had driven social welfare gains turned to bust, the right wing was returned to power. All panelists emphasized the heterogenous nature of the right in the region, and agreed that rather than returning, the right had never really been away. Economic, land and media interests had continued to be protected through informal mechanisms, and also by the reluctance of Pink Tide governments to push too radical a reform agenda for fear of political backlash or some form of military re-intervention (Bolivia). Nallim emphasized the diversity of right wing organisations and parties across the region and also within individual countries, highlighting conservative, liberal and neoliberal traditions.
Nagy focused on the influence of evangelical movements in accounting for the electoral success of some right wing figures – most saliently Bolsonaro in Brazil. The panel discussed social and moral questions as ‘wedge issues’ in recent elections and the role of Facebook in targeting voters with wedge messaging. The Latin American right was seen to come from political traditions, forces and support bases distinct from right populist movements in Europe and North America. It was also agreed that the ‘new’ right governments were fragile and somewhat chaotic, under intense pressure to address social inequalities, injustices, corruption and violence. As highlighted by the recent defeat of right wing candidates in Mexico and Argentina, a new period of right wing dominance in the region was not expected, with the left remaining a viable political force.