War against ‘woke capitalism’ coming to EU

Politico carries an article, featuring Nigel Farage's spat with a bank that dropped him over his political views has already caught the attention of politicians in the EU. Caliber.Az reprints the article.

If you think banks should focus less on climate change and diversity, here’s a strategy you can get behind.

The man who brought you Brexit is back with a playbook for Europe's populists.

Nigel Farage's rabble-rousing cry against “woke capitalism” is a roadmap for Euroskeptic parties across the continent seeking to rally their base against an establishment they portray as unconcerned with real people's worries.

With Europeans heading to the polls next year, Farage's spat with a bank that dropped him over his political views has already caught the attention of politicians in the EU. The next step would be for them to try to convince voters that an out-of-touch elite is too preoccupied with climate change and diversity to focus on their concerns.

“Far-right parties will keep talking about immigration because it's their core topic, but in order to increase their appeal they need to kind of diversify their issues, what they talk about, and this is where woke capitalism comes in,” said Sofia Vasilopoulou, professor of European politics at King’s College London.

The attack on “woke capitalism” follows a similar trend in the U.S., where Republicans have slammed big business for pursuing progressive values — rather than their core job of making money.

Woke nonsense

Farage spent recent weeks railing against exclusive private bank Coutts’ decision to drop him as a client. An internal memo said he was considered a “disingenuous grifter.”

“Banks should provide banking services, not have a set of social and political ‘values’ we should align to,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter, on July 27. “They need to end the whole woke nonsense immediately. It’s gone too far.”

What followed was seen as a textbook victory for the former UK Independence Party leader. The case dominated headlines in the British press and Farage won the support of the Conservative government, claimed the scalps of top U.K. banking executives over the decision to “cancel” him and managed to unite both ends of the political spectrum against his treatment.

And its that success that European politicians seek to replicate.

“One woke banker down, still many, many more to go,” German MEP Gunnar Beck, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany, tweeted after the resignation of Alison Rose, the CEO of Natwest, Coutts' parent company.

There was broad agreement that Farage had legitimate gripes over his treatment by Coutts but there is little evidence to support the claim that British politicians are widely losing access to banking due to their politics. U.K. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has asked the City of London watchdog to investigate.

"One of the strategies of the far right has always been provoking and scandalizing," said Ruth Wodak, emeritus professor in linguistics at Lancaster University, and author of "The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean."

"[Farage] has found something where he can use those banks as a scapegoat," she said. He was able to paint himself as a victim on the side of normal people versus the "elite" banking establishment, she said.

Left-wing millennials

The concept of "woke capitalism" began life as a term similar to "greenwashing," to criticize companies for brandishing environmental or social credentials, including in advertising campaigns, to try and cozy up to left-wing millennials they think care about those issues — without actually changing their business practices.

The political right now use it to criticize big business for going too far. In Washington, Republican lawmakers held hearings this July as part of an escalating war with Wall Street — in particular by targeting money managers pursuing green investment strategies.

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — rivaling Donald Trump to be the next Republican candidate for U.S. president — is brawling with Disney, one of the state's biggest employers, over the corporation’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights.

The flaw in the populists' argument is that many of the companies they attack, and banks in particular, aren't genuinely "woke" by a number of metrics.

Take European banks. They aren't diverse — their boards are dominated by men. And they aren't green —with looming disclosures expected to show low single-digit percentages for environmentally friendly loans on their books.

But EU regulators have flagged the issue of “debanking” before — not for the reasons Farage complained about, but for cash-heavy businesses like hairdressers and refugees who struggle with documentation, where banks may decide the risk of falling foul of anti-money laundering rules outweighs the benefits of keeping them as clients.

Electoral payoff

What the drama around Farage’s bank account shows is how populists are reframing their pitch.

“Immigration to a large extent has reached the kind of electoral payoff ceiling,” said Vasilopoulou — who also highlighted LGBTQ+ issues as a new enemy for parties courting female voters.

“For the European elections, it will be interesting to see how [far-right parties] can connect this idea of woke capitalism, or the different aspects of it, with the European Union.”

As the far-right have gained across Europe, traditional conservative parties have adopted their policies to win back voters.

The rightward tilt is also visible in the EU — where the European People’s Party, the biggest conservative bloc, is obstructing green laws to appeal to a base flirting with parties further to the right.

Poll suggests the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, a collection of farther-right parties that includes Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, will pick up seats at the EU election next June — potentially creating what observers are already calling an unpredictable “populist Parliament.”

Hijacked by activists

For Michiel Hoogeveen, a Dutch ECR MEP, “woke capitalism” hasn't yet become a strong concept in the EU because of a different debate about how to tackle climate change — such as whether nuclear energy can count as green.

But he said there are legitimate questions about whether companies are acting in the interests of their shareholders and their ability to make money in the long-term.

“The main concern is that we're having traditionally great companies that — and I’m putting it quite bluntly — have now been hijacked by environmental activists,” he said.

Ultimately what may decide whether the war against "woke capitalism" gains ground is the health of the European economy. Because, as Wodak says, the attack on banks taps into voters' broader worries that other people are reaping the rewards and they're not.

"This fear of losing out has been very successful for the far right," she said. "It's not only the case that people have lost, but also the fear of losing."