A trend of regional compartmentalization is currently emerging in global politics, and ANBOUND's founder Kung Chan defines this as "continental politics". In late October 2026, two major elections in the Americas have ended. In the early provincial election held in British Columbia, Canada, on October 24, the Conservative Party won an overwhelming victory. Preliminary vote counts in Canada indicated that the Conservatives captured approximately 48% of the vote and secured over sixty percent of the province's 93 legislative seats, ending the left-wing New Democratic Party's nine-year administration in the region. Including the Greater Vancouver area with the presence of a great number of Chinese Canadian communities, the region has returned to the electoral map of the right-wing Conservative Party.
In the second round of the presidential election in Brazil held on October 25, right-wing frontrunner Flávio Bolsonaro, who had led in the first round, ultimately failed to win. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's former personal attorney, now a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, issued an order extending voting hours in specific areas, resulting in Lula securing re-election with approximately 51.77% of the vote.
While Brazil's left-wing President Lula will remain in power, the contrasting outcomes of these two elections still reflect a notable shift in contemporary politics across the Americas. Right-wing conservative forces continue to expand their political influence across the American continent. Even if the left has not lost its ability to compete, right-wing conservative politics continues to exhibit a sweeping momentum across the Americas.
Viewed within the broader international political framework, ANBOUND's founder Kung Chan points out that as politics in the Americas continues to tilt rightward, the competition between left and right within Europe is also undergoing changes. Consequently, a continental-plate-based political structure that transcends the Atlantic Ocean and national borders through integration is increasingly becoming the foundation of future world political relations, and may gradually evolve into a prominent feature of Western politics in the future.
The political shifts in the Americas in recent years have long since extended beyond the Trump phenomenon in the United States. Javier Milei in Argentina, José Antonio Kast in Chile, Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, Keiko Fujimori in Peru, and right-wing or center-right governments in countries such as Ecuador have collectively reshaped the political landscape of Latin America that emerged from several waves of left-wing politics since the early 21st century. This shift spans multiple countries across North and South America with varying levels of development and distinct political traditions, while the competitive advantages of right-wing forces have increasingly taken on a transnational character, spreading across national borders.
British Columbia's election is particularly noteworthy. The region has long had a strong progressive political tradition, with left-wing political forces firmly established over many years. Yet, the Conservative Party was still able to secure a sweeping victory there. This suggests that issues such as the cost of living, energy development, public services, and economic growth have become powerful enough to prompt some traditionally left-wing voters to change their electoral preferences. Notably, the expansion of right-wing politics is not driven solely by conservative ideology. Rather, by continually responding to economic pressures and social discontent in people's everyday lives, right-wing forces have reshaped existing voter coalitions.
However, the right-wing expansion in the Americas has not yet formed a unified political map. This is merely a political phenomenon relative to the previous period when left-wing governments collectively came to power across the American continent, a development uniformly termed the "Pink Tide" by officials and academics. On the American continent today, the federal government of Canada remains led by the Liberal Party, though its future has become precarious. Mexico is governed by the left-wing Morena party, but effectively pursues center-right policies due to its proximity to the United States. Lula in Brazil secured re-election, but primarily managed this narrowly through maneuvering. Meanwhile, Uruguay still maintains a center-right government, though its national standing is relatively minor. Across the American continent, the rapid rightward lean of this continent is unmistakable, and right-wing forces have undoubtedly gained a distinct advantage across the Americas through a new blue wave.
Therefore, the future ideological mainstream of the American continent will center on the U.S. Republican Party, confronting the world from a right-wing conservative stance and specifically challenging the left-wing political positions held by European nations.
Compared to the Americas, Europe's political structure exhibits a different kind of complexity. Europe is not a political continent dominated by left-wing forces. Italy's right-wing government, Germany's center-right governing coalition, and the rise of radical right-wing forces across multiple European countries in recent years all demonstrate that Europe is likewise impacted by the conservative wave, yet left-wing ideology and left-wing governments still retain a solid social position in Europe.
Research published by Carnegie Europe in September 2026 shows that among the 27 member states of the European Union, governments currently led by center-left forces have decreased from 10 to 3 over the past decade. The largest political group in the European Parliament is similarly the center-right European People's Party. Therefore, it is a fact that European politics is shifting rightward, a point that shares a certain directional similarity with the right-wing expansion in the Americas.
Europe, however, is distinctive in that the institutional and social foundations accumulated by the left over many decades continue to impose significant constraints on right-wing ideology. Since political divisions between the left and right began to take shape during the French Revolution of 1789, the subsequent development of Jacobinism, socialist movements, trade unions, and social democracy has made the European left more than merely a political force represented by parties. It has also played a profound role in shaping the institutions of modern state governance. The welfare state, mechanisms for labor–management negotiation, public healthcare systems, social security, and institutional regulation of the market economy that emerged after the Second World War have become established political realities accepted across party lines in many European countries. Even when right-wing governments come to power, they find it difficult to fully escape these institutional legacies. The political influence of the European left, therefore, cannot be measured solely by the number of countries in which left-wing parties hold power. Although it may experience electoral setbacks, the left can still help define the limits of what right-wing governments can do through social organizations, public policy, and political culture.
It is worth noting that the European Union itself further reinforces these institutional constraints. Although right-wing forces have gained considerable strength in the European Parliament in recent years, the center-right European People's Party (EPP) has not fully shifted toward establishing a stable alliance with the radical right. A 2026 study by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS) on voting patterns in the European Parliament found that cooperation among the center-right, center-left, and liberal groups remains the principal mechanism through which parliamentary majorities are formed. Although policies on immigration, climate governance, and industrial regulation have shifted to the right, European politics still requires complex institutional compromises among competing political forces. This is in sharp contrast to Trump's approach, which seeks to rapidly reshape the existing political and economic order through executive power, tariff policies, and a narrative centered on national sovereignty. Even when European conservatism gains greater political influence, it must often contend with social democratic institutions and European integration mechanisms that cannot be easily transformed.
Hence, the confrontational relationship between these two political trends spans across the Atlantic Ocean, with the powerful left-wing forces on the European continent confronting the increasingly powerful right-wing forces on the American continent, this is the abovementioned "continental politics".
The institutional preferences and political order demands of these two continental political blocs will present unavoidable challenging issues to the world. The U.S. National Security Strategy released by the Trump administration in 2025 explicitly places the Western Hemisphere in a position of priority and introduced the "Trump-Style Monroe Doctrine", attempting to reorganize the regional order of the Americas based on U.S. security, economic, and geopolitical interests. The emergence of multiple right-wing governments in the Americas provides geographic conditions for the U.S. to find regional partners with similar policy preferences. Conversely, faced with trade pressures, shifting security commitments, and political ideology conflicts from the Trump administration, Europe increasingly emphasizes the independence of its own institutions, markets, and strategic interests. The contradictions within transatlantic relations constitute the boundaries of "continental politics", which may gradually transition from specific policy disputes between governments to the global level of political philosophy and order arrangements.
These political divisions within the Western world, increasingly manifesting along continental lines, may in the future revolve around globalization, trade rules, industrial protectionism, the energy transition, migration governance, and the reform of international institutions. They could lead to more divergent policy approaches among Europe and certain countries in the Americas. In the past, Western countries were able to coordinate their internal differences within a shared liberal international order. In the future, however, there might be stronger cross-border cooperation among countries belonging to the same political camp, alongside deepening policy conflicts among traditional allies.
For international politics, this fragmentation will weaken the explanatory power of traditional approaches that classify political camps according to national alliances, while exposing other major economies to an increasingly volatile external environment. For China, adaptation and adjustment may become necessary. At the same time, this increasingly bloc-oriented global political landscape could reshape China's position in world politics, making it necessary for the country to develop new strategic concepts and orientations.
Final analysis conclusion:
Based on current political developments, a pattern of differentiated confrontation is emerging between the European left and the American right, giving rise to a form of "continental politics" of left–right polarization. Once these alignments begin to shape concrete arrangements in trade, security, and the international order, the competition between left- and right-wing forces could transcend the traditional framework of world politics and evolve into a new phenomenon of "continental politics".
