Grangemouth: Will Scotland one day have its Geert Wilders?

If anyone imagines Scotland is immune to the far-right virus sweeping the world, they better wake up. We’re deep in the second wave of global populist extremism. 

Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro may be gone, Poland’s hard-right leaders may have fallen, and Spain dodged an extremist government – but the far-right is in power in Hungary, Argentina and Italy; it’s in Finland’s ruling coalition, and propping up the government in Sweden. A populist runs Slovakia. In Paris, Vienna, Brussels and Berlin the far-right breathes down democracy’s neck.

‘Progressive’ Ireland has just been rocked by far-right riots. Geert Wilders, one of Europe’s most extreme politicians, won this week’s Dutch elections.

Wilders should focus minds in Scotland, and the rest of Britain. He didn’t just ride to power on an anti-migrant anti-Islam ticket. Wilders also fed off fears and discontent around environmental policies. Since 2019, Dutch society has been rocked by the ‘Farmer Protests’, sparked by anger over the effect of environmental policies on agriculture.

Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party says: “We have been made to fear climate change for decades… We must stop being afraid.” It’s avowedly anti-green.

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This takes us to Grangemouth, Scotland’s oil refinery. The site is set to close with at least 400 job losses. Franck Demay, chief executive of Petroineos, which owns Grangemouth, said: “As the energy transition gathers pace, this is a necessary step in adapting our business to reflect the decline in demand for the type of fuels we produce.”

There should be no job losses. The Scottish and UK governments should both have industrial strategies in place ensuring oil and gas workers are retrained for green jobs. Scottish and British industrial strategies should also ensure there are green jobs available.

The Scottish Government has failed to both create secure green jobs and to reskill and retrain workers. Take offshore wind. In 2010, the Scottish Government projected 28,000 offshore wind jobs. By 2021, only 3100 had materialised. Most offshore wind jobs are in manufacturing and construction. However, Scotland hasn’t developed the necessary supply chains, so work goes overseas. 

The need to transition to net zero isn’t up for debate. It must happen. But it must be just and fair. Places like Aberdeen cannot become another Ravenscraig. As it stands, we run a very real risk of the shift to net zero triggering another wave of deindustrialisation akin to Thatcherism.

'There should be no job losses. The Scottish and UK governments should both have industrial strategies in place ensuring oil and gas workers are retrained for green jobs' (Image: Newsquest)
Grangemouth shows that’s already happening. Without fairness, the consequences could be dreadful. The public may not only turn their backs on green policies – if they are seen to put jobs, communities, and families at risk – but voters could start listening to dangerous anti-environmental voices.

Such voices may be on the fringes of Scottish politics today. But for a long time Geert Wilders was in the wilderness too. For a long time, Marine Le Pen’s movement was a joke. She now has every chance of becoming the next President of the French Republic.

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Anti-environmentalism is bound up with many far-right parties. The far-right knows what butters its bread: fear. We’re in the grip of a terrifying cost of living crisis, with working families driven below the poverty line. Fear makes people seek answers in places they may never look in good times.

Absurdly, the Scottish Greens have been talking about Grangemouth workers being “promised a Just Transition” but now facing job losses. Have the Greens forgotten they’ve been in government since 2021?

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Big corporations will indeed betray workers. That’s why national governments must enact policies that protect both workers and the environment. Unless we wish to risk a Scottish Geert Wilders, the SNP-Green government needs to get its act together now.