It is odd that for the first time since the return of democracy in 1985, Brazilians have elected a far-right president. But Jair Bolsonaro is not just the choice of the Brazilian majority but the latest example of right-wing nationalist and anti-immigrant political leaders and their parties taking or consolidating power, or who have made major gains in elections, especially across Europe.

The political situation in Europe serves as a good case in point of this wider phenomenon. In recent years, right-wing populist parties have grown in strength in nearly all the countries on the continent. In Austria, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, it feels like every time there is an election somewhere in Europe, a xenophobic populist party makes electoral gains. The post-war decades of closer European integration are coming to an end and are giving way to grassroots nationalist movements.

The common thread that unites Europe’s right-wing movements is hostility to immigration, particularly from the Muslim Middle East where war zones have forced millions of refugees and asylum seekers into Europe over the past few years. This massive influx has stoked xenophobic and Islamophobic sentiment while giving the far right a political opening to campaign on preserving their national cultures, values and identities against what they perceive as an invasion of foreigners.

The nationalists have promised to bring order to this chaotic, seemingly ceaseless influx of immigrants, and this has resonated with European voters. The war on “the other”, plus the actual war on terror is giving racism a new platform in Europe in the name of security.

Common thread number two that binds them all together is a center-right populist movement of the middle class, the working men and women in the world who are tired of being dictated to by what has been called “The Party of Davos” – the business and political leaders who gather annually for the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland. The working class does not feel represented by the left and is consequently giving its support to populist parties.

Ironically, a healthy economic climate in Europe and the US has proven to be even more favorable for populism than at times of economic crisis. Economic growth has actually further undermined the left. Periods of economic growth should, if anything, stem populism and help reinvigorate traditional parties of the left which uphold the values and institutions that sustain liberal democratic government. In fact, the opposite is happening.

One possible explanation: The world in general is producing much more wealth than in, say, the 1980s, but the working classes have seen very little of it. Austerity policies have produced a steep increase in social inequality and economic insecurity.

As left-wing parties have either collapsed or not lived up to expectations, the sole option remaining for voters is conservatism or right-wing populism. European and US politics has been reduced to the mainstream right and the populist right, with the mainstream gradually giving in to the ideas and rhetoric of the populists.

Bolsonaro is a seven-term lawmaker and former army captain. Even though at home he has defended dictatorship and torture and joked about killing his left-wing opponents, and has a history of denigrating women and minorities, he successfully pitched himself as the anti-establishment candidate, appealing to voters fed up with political graft and violent crime.

His has become a familiar but chilling pattern. Far-right politicians have risen to the highest ranks of world power. From these newly acquired positions of strength, they have initiated deeply disturbing authoritarian transformations of their respective countries.

The liberal media and public call them racists, xenophobes and nativists. To them, those are not insults. In fact, they wear those labels like a badge of honor.