“It’s the Identity, Stupid!”: 3 Writers on Europe’s Rising Far Right is a round-table opinion feature published by The New York Times on October 12, 2026.

 

‘It’s the Identity, Stupid!’: 3 Writers on Europe’s Rising Far Right

“It’s the Identity, Stupid!”: 3 Writers on Europe’s Rising Far Right is a round-table opinion feature published by The New York Times on October 12, 2026.

The piece features a discussion between writers David Broder, Caroline de Gruyter, and Mattia Ferraresi, and is moderated by Tim Schneider.

Core Themes & Arguments

The article re-evaluates James Carville’s famous 1992 campaign phrase ("It's the economy, stupid") to argue that the modern surge of right-wing populism across Europe is driven primarily by identity politics and cultural anxieties rather than purely economic factors:

• The Illusion of the Left-Right Shift: The panel argues that the European electorate isn't necessarily undergoing a massive personal ideological shift to the right; rather, the political parties themselves are shifting to the right, redefining what is on offer to voters.
• Cannibalizing the Center-Right: While populist parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and France's National Rally initially built momentum by absorbing disaffected, lower-educated social-democratic voters after the 2008 financial crisis, they are now rapidly capturing mainstream, white-collar, and center-right voters.
• The Role of Mainstream Failure: The writers note that when mainstream centrist parties abandon core positions or fail to address public anxieties, they leave a vacuum. Consequently, a portion of the electorate defaults to the far right simply because it is the primary alternative presented to them.
• The Transatlantic Connection: The roundtable links these European dynamics to global trends, discussing how these parties plan to wield power, their systemic impact on the European Union, and their relationship to political movements in the United States under Donald Trump.