In the recent electoral consultation for the European Parliament, a remarkable advance of far-right political forces was recorded. It is about a trend that has been manifesting for some time and that has already had political materialization in a number of countries, also outside Europe. And also outside the political sphere: there are many religious tendencies, outside and inside our Church, which adopt far-right positions. It is worth paying attention to the causes and meaning of this phenomenon.

First of all, and regardless of the area in which the terms "right" and "left" are used with a political meaning, it is worth paying attention and not forgetting that they define positions in the class struggle. That is, they make political sense only in the framework or context of a society stratified by social classes. Social classes with different and contradictory interests, in conflict. The form of the struggle can vary, depending on the economic circumstances, from relatively peaceful forms, simple strikes or demonstrations, to situations with varying degrees of violence, even civil war.

In this context of competing class interests, the title of "left" has been conventionally assigned to the forces that demand a more just and egalitarian social order, without exploitation of some classes over others, and are called "right" the forces interested in maintaining, in favor of the beneficiaries, the existing social order and economic relations. Thus defining the board on which the struggle takes place, it seems that, in theory, everyone should know their place in the struggle and what their class interests are. But in reality things are not like that. We see that large masses of the dispossessed, the exploited, harmed by the economic system, are lining up in the struggle in favor of their exploiters and robbers, that is, against their class interests. The rich would not be able to maintain the economic and social situation that favors them, if they did not have the political and electoral support of large masses of subjects, as happened in the last electoral processes.

The phenomenon is not new. Let us remember the crowd that cried out for Pilate to release Barabbas and condemn Jesus of Nazareth. How is this declassified staff that does not know about their true interests produced? The strategy is to keep the dominated people in ignorance. An ancient Hindu proverb says: If two kingdoms are at war and one of them does not know it, the other has every chance of winning. Realizing the declassification of the inferior facilitates the goal of avoiding their resistance to being exploited. They are made to adopt artificial identities that mobilize and pit members of the lower and subjugated classes against each other. The identity elements are of various types.

- In some cases it is about the concept "homeland". It served to unite huge masses of Germans a century ago based on the frustration suffered by the defeat in the First World War. It also serves to generate opposition to the universalism advocated by the forces of the Left. Both the current one in favor of BREXIT and those who oppose the consolidation of the European Union, as well as separatist nationalisms due to ethnic or linguistic issues, are based on the elitist feeling of belonging to a specific homeland, which must be defended against people of other national identities.

- In other cases the identity element is the "religion". Typical, for example, is the confrontation in Northern Ireland between human communities with different religious beliefs. This category also includes religious fundamentalisms, which generate conflicts between Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus...

- There are also the elements of "culture", "tradition"... as a source and origin of refusals that occur even within communities with the same nationality, race, religion... this is the case of the rejection of the progress of the feminism and its demands, of different forms of sexuality...

- But mainly, as an identity element that mobilizes social refusal or rejection, there is the concept of "race", "ethnic group". This element, which is known as "xenophobia" and "racism", can be combined with some of the other types of social rejection mentioned: religion, culture, nationality, as well as with "aporophobia", defined as: rejection, reluctance, fear and contempt for the poor, for the helpless, who cannot give anything in return. This is, without a doubt, the main cause of the rise of the extreme right in Europe and also in the United States, because we live in a time in which, for various reasons: economic, geostrategic, demographic, climatic... a huge wave of emigration is happening from Africa and the East to Europe, and from South America to the United States In the immigrants there are several or all the causes that generate rejection: a poor state, a different ethnic group or race, religion, culture... that is, they combine everything that it can to awaken, in the target countries, the worst feelings of elitism and selfishness. This situation is the fertile ground on which fascism reaps its electoral victories.

The interest of the ruling classes is to promote and organize these types of movements by uninformed elitists. The ideological apparatus of the dominant system, education and information, in which the religions willingly and interestedly cooperate, is very effective in generating those human masses with a soul of slaves, who kiss the boot that oppresses them. In Spain, we see the massive electoral support for right-wing politics, which does not hide its desire to liquidate social services: health, education, housing... and when it is in power, it approves cuts against the exploited classes by applying tax amnesties in favor of the powerful who deceived the Tax authorities. In favor of their comrades, who acted corruptly when in power, that political right, today in the political opposition, used to its advantage the influence it had over the General Council of the Judiciary, whose renewal it had opposed for some years until very recently.

But there are signs to fear that the goal of the far right which is expanding goes beyond the creation and maintenance of a captive electorate. There were always declassified people from the lowest strata of the population who supported their exploiters. What is new about the current phenomenon of neo-fascism is the aggressiveness in the public forms of political competition, which contributes to the degradation and distortion of political activity, which seems to be a deliberate intention to discredit the political institutions and undermine the people's faith in the democratic system. This was the tactic used by the fascisms of the last century to abolish the parliamentary practice and impose authoritarian regimes, which led to the Second World War. Today there is again a threat of war in the world and we even already have a military conflict in Europe, in which our government and those of other European countries are getting more and more involved. It is frightening that the expansion of the extreme right that we are talking about is part of a strategy, in the short or medium term, to nullify any possible popular reaction to the catastrophic destiny to which they are leading us.

If this is the fruit of the political choices that our society seems to want to support, we will culpably contribute to the misfortune that will befall us. The gospel message of Jesus of Nazareth calls us to attitudes of human brotherhood that are not compatible with the feelings of elitism and selfishness that fascism promotes. The people who rejected Jesus in favor of what Barabbas stood for found themselves a generation later immersed in a catastrophic war that was the logical outcome of that fateful choice. We must tell our society that it moves according to logic and values what contradict what the Gospel demands. We continue to choose what the Barabas option means.