Global Progressive Leaders Meet in London as Right-Wing Populism Threatens Center-Left Politics

Glob­al pro­gres­sive lead­ers gath­ered in Lon­don to devel­op strate­gies against ris­ing right-wing pop­ulism as cen­ter-left pol­i­tics faces unprece­dent­ed chal­lenges world­wide. On 26 Sep­tem­ber 2025, The New York Times report­ed that the Glob­al Progress Action Sum­mit brought togeth­er fig­ures includ­ing British Prime Min­is­ter Keir Starmer, Cana­di­an Prime Min­is­ter Mark Car­ney, and for­mer U.S. Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Pete Buttigieg to address threats from anti-immi­gra­tion par­ties and eco­nom­ic stag­na­tion. The arti­cle begins:

In nor­mal times, five elec­tion-win­ning, cen­ter-left polit­i­cal lead­ers from around the world, gath­ered in an impos­ing mar­bled hall in Lon­don, would be a stir­ring show of strength for cham­pi­ons of lib­er­al pol­i­tics. Instead, the prime min­is­ters, who include Canada’s Mark Car­ney, Aus­trali­a’s Antho­ny Albanese, and Britain’s Keir Starmer, are set to meet on Fri­day at a moment when their brand of pro­gres­sive pol­i­tics has rarely seemed more endan­gered. Fick­le vot­ers, stag­nant economies and a polar­iz­ing debate over immi­gra­tion have left cen­ter-left gov­ern­ments vul­ner­a­ble to right-wing pop­ulists. In the Unit­ed States, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty is limp­ing in the polit­i­cal wilder­ness, unable, as yet, to for­mu­late a per­sua­sive mes­sage to counter Pres­i­dent Trump.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/world/europe/progressives-ippr-summit-london-starmer.html[pay­wall]

Key Points

• Starmer faces a polit­i­cal cri­sis with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK hold­ing a dou­ble-dig­it lead over Labour in polls.
• The sum­mit was orga­nized by the Cen­ter for Amer­i­can Progress Action Fund and British think tanks IPPR and Labour Together.
• Pro­gres­sive lead­ers are dis­cussing respons­es to Trump’s tar­iffs and address­ing vot­er con­cerns about the cost of living.
• Starmer announced a com­pul­so­ry dig­i­tal ID plan to deter ille­gal migrant work­ers amid immi­gra­tion concerns.

National Conservative Election Gains Surge Across Europe and America

The Glob­al Nation­al Con­ser­v­a­tive Alliance has achieved sig­nif­i­cant elec­toral momen­tum across Europe through coor­di­nat­ed far-right move­ments that now lead polling for the first time in Europe’s three biggest economies. Ger­many’s Alter­na­tive for Ger­many par­ty reached 26% in nation­al polling, sur­pass­ing Chan­cel­lor Friedrich Merz’s con­ser­v­a­tive bloc for the first time, while achiev­ing con­cen­trat­ed gains in strug­gling regions where the par­ty won 30% of coun­cil votes in post-indus­tri­al cities like Gelsenkirchen. France’s Nation­al Ral­ly main­tains con­sis­tent polling leads with Jor­dan Bardel­la achiev­ing 36% approval rat­ings, while Britain’s Reform UK under Nigel Farage has surged ahead of both Labour and Con­ser­v­a­tive par­ties that dom­i­nat­ed British pol­i­tics for a century.

Spain’s VOX par­ty has expe­ri­enced unprece­dent­ed growth, with a quar­ter of vot­ers under 24 sup­port­ing the anti-immi­gra­tion plat­form while steal­ing over 800,000 vot­ers from the con­ser­v­a­tive Pop­u­lar Par­ty in the past year alone. Hun­gary’s Fidesz par­ty main­tained pow­er through sov­er­eign­ty pro­tec­tion mea­sures tar­get­ing for­eign-fund­ed NGOs dur­ing the 2022 par­lia­men­tary elec­tions, while Don­ald Trump’s 2024 elec­toral vic­to­ry has inten­si­fied for­eign influ­ence oper­a­tions tar­get­ing right-wing media to cap­i­tal­ize on Repub­li­can con­trol of government.

Exter­nal References:

• Ger­man con­ser­v­a­tives lead elec­tion with far-right AfD in sec­ond place, exit polls show
• Spain: VOX Now Most Pop­u­lar Par­ty for Young Voters
• Why young Euro­peans are embrac­ing the far right
• Pop­ulist Right-Wing Par­ties Lead Polls in Europe’s Biggest Economies

Dis­claimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.