Hope emerges against tide of populist politicians

London

THE 2017 Munich security conference begins on Friday with attendees including US Vice-President Mike Pence, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. A key theme of the landmark annual event will, unusually, be as much domestic policy as international relations, with debate focused on the growing concern that "the world is facing an illiberal moment . . . across the West and beyond" and a "post-truth age".

With populist parties now part of government in around a dozen Western democracies, this theme is a fitting one for such an important European event given that the continent, in 2017, will be the primary test bed for whether anti-establishment forces will continue to make political ground. In the Netherlands, where polls indicate the far-right Freedom Party will emerge as the largest single party next month, mainstream politicians are under pressure from insurgents championing eurosceptical, anti-immigrant platforms.