for The Hill

LIVERPOOL, England — Brexit is done, and Donald Trump, given the boot by U.S. voters, is angrily pacing the political sidelines. But the upsurge of rightwing populism that produced them both continues to roil transatlantic politics.

Last Sunday, the far-right Brothers of Italy party, which has a fascist lineage, finished first in national elections. Its leader, Giorgia Meloni, will become Italy’s first female prime minister. She’s a socially conservative Christian who opposes immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights. Although she’s toned down her Euroskepticism, Meloni also is an “Italy First” nationalist likely to align with illiberal regimes in Poland and Hungary.

A virulent strain of national populism also is advancing in Europe’s social democratic heartland. The Sweden Democrats (SD), formerly a fringe party with neo-Nazi roots, finished a strong second in national elections earlier this month and will join a right-leaning government.  

The SD channeled a public backlash against Sweden’s historic receptivity to political refugees and asylum seekers. It blamed a large influx of migrants from Muslim countries for a spate of gang violence and shootings in a country where gun violence has been rare.  

In both cases, mainstream conservative parties overcame their previous scruples against “normalizing” xenophobic parties by joining them in governing coalitions. Elsewhere, conservatives have survived the nationalist whirlwind by coopting its key themes.

Britain’s Conservatives stole the nativist United Kingdom Independence Party’s thunder by promising to “get Brexit done,” restrict migrants from Europe and spend more to “level up” living standards in old industrial centers. That enabled the Tories to breach Labour’s “Red Wall” — its working class strongholds in the north of England.

How to win those voters back was the question hovering over Labour’s annual Conference in Liverpool this week, which I attended.