A leftward wave is sweeping Latin America — including, soon, Brazil — while Europe is moving rightward as Swedes and Italians elect right wing leaders, and Britons prepare pro-growth, supply-side economics. 

Why? 

A “profoundly anti-incumbent mood” is taking over, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ryan Berg, says. In the post-pandemic era, as war rages at the heart of Europe, economies teeter.

Clamoring for change and tired of corrupt governments, voters are rejecting incumbents regardless of party. “Whether voters agree or not” with candidates is “less important than the mandate for change” they represent, Mr. Berg tells the Sun. 

A Venezuelan political consultant, Pablo Quintero, says that amid the war and pandemic effects, the economy is affecting politics. People feel their lawmakers are unable to solve economic problems, he says.

The Latin American left managed best to address issues on the voters’ minds, Mr. Quintero says, as did the right in Europe. In both cases voters were tired of the ruling elites. The difference is that the Western Hemisphere has long been ruled by rightists, while Europe was dominated by leftist politicians. Hence the switch. 

Italy’s historic election Sunday resulted in a victory for a right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, who will soon become the country’s first female prime minister. Her party, Brothers of Italy, and its partners will compose the most right-wing government since Benito Mussolini’s.

The coalition of Ms. Meloni’s party, Matteo Salvini’s League, and Forza Italia, headed by a former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, received 44 percent of the votes. The left received 26 percent, giving the right the ability to control the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. 

On September 11, Sweden’s general elections to choose the 349 members of the legislative assembly marked a victory for an alliance of three center-right parties and the rightmost party, Sweden Democrats. The leader of the center-right Moderate party, Ulk Kristersson, is expected to become prime minister.

Both Italy and Sweden are now part of a right-wing force emerging in Europe, joining  Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, and Poland’s Andrzej Duda. 

In Britain, the new Tory prime minister, Elizabeth “Liz” Truss, introduced on Friday an economic growth plan that includes major tax cuts to individuals and corporations. Loud jeers from Labor and from less conservative Tory parliamentarians followed. The British pound lost 5 percent of its value, falling to historic lows against the dollar. 

Critics of Europe’s new conservative turn fear it would complicate the collective European Union’s post-Covid efforts and disunite the continent’s fragile anti-Moscow, pro-Ukraine unity. “The challenges ahead have gotten slightly more difficult than several weeks ago, especially as Russia appears to be escalating its efforts with a partial mobilization,” Mr. Berg tells the Sun.

While Ms. Meloni has supported Ukraine and voiced her intentions to supply Kyiv with arms, her coalition partners, Messrs. Salvini and Berlusconi, have shown support for Vladimir Putin by questioning sanctions and echoing his propaganda. 

Hungary’s Mr. Orban, who is facing surging inflation and a possible recession, told parliament that he is not surprised that governments are falling in Europe. A Putin ally, he blamed it on the Russian sanctions.

“We can safely say that as a result of the sanctions, European people have become poorer, while Russia has not fallen to its knees,” Mr. Orban said. “This weapon has backfired, with the sanctions Europe has shot itself in the foot.”

Sweden and Italy’s elections are the “culmination of a long-term process” of the right emerging in the public sphere, a professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Pietro Castelli Gattinara, says. The first wave, he adds, came during the interwar period. After that, there were two other periods in which the right emerged but still lacked strength. 

The right-wing parties are now enjoying success because they campaign on issues that matter to voters, Mr. Castelli Gattinara says. Sweden Democrats, for one, campaigned on anti-immigration and tough-on-crime policies, complete with a 30-point plan to set some of the toughest immigration rules in the European Union. 

It played well among Swedes, who are concerned about spikes in gang- and drug-related shootings. In 2022, there have been 289 confirmed shootings so far and a record is expected by the end of the year, according to the Swedish police. The record of 379 was set in 2020. 

The leftist prime minister, Minister Magdalena Andersson, who resigned on Thursday, caved to right-wing lawmakers last month when she introduced measures to expand police powers and punish weapons offenses. “Too much migration and too weak integration have led to parallel societies where criminal gangs have been able to grow and gain a foothold,” Ms. Andersson said.

Latin America, on the other hand, is seeing the rise of the left. A widely expected victory for a former Brazilian leftist president in the first round of elections on October 2 would consolidate leftist rule in the region’s six biggest economies. 

The race pits the right-wing current president, Jair Bolsonaro, against his predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula. For months, polls have shown a 10-point lead for Mr. da Silva. Pollsters predict that on Sunday Lula will win with 45 percent of the vote, to Mr. Bolsonaro’s 35 percent. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent in the first round, there will be a second round on October 30. 

In June, a former Marxist guerrilla, Gustavo Petro, defeated a right-wing businessman, Rodolfo Hernandez, in Colombia’s elections. He joined the leftist wave that includes the presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; Argentina, Alberto Fernandez; Chile, Gabriel Boric; and Peru, Pedro Castillo.

The reason why the left is rising in Latin America is because important leftist figures in the region, including Argentina’s Peron, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, and Brazil’s Lula, have planted “seeds” among Latin American countries,  Mr. Quintero says. In times of crisis, the left has understood people’s needs better than the right, he says. 

According to economists, Brazil’s gross domestic product is nearly flat, living standards have fallen, and food insecurity has risen. Mr. da Silva has promised to help the 33 million Brazilians who live under the poverty line; to increase taxes on the rich; to introduce a debt-forgiveness program; and to stop illegal mining in indeginous lands This has added to the “defeat of many center-right governments,” according to Mr. Berg. 

He says he believes the leftists will have a hard time forging regional cooperation. Voters will be anxious, he says, and will want results delivered quickly amid the economic crisis in Brazil.

“Honeymoons will be short,” Mr. Berg says. “Street mobilizations will become more of the norm once again.”