EU elections bring the rise of far-right parties

European voters “may be about to elect their most right-wing parliament in history,” said CNBC. Voters in 27 nations this week will choose 720 members for five-year terms in the EU Parliament — and as with much of the rest of the world, the results are expected to reflect a surge of nationalist anti-immigrant sentiment on the continent. The parliament has traditionally “been led by a strong majority of centrist parties,” but expected gains for parties that include Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen “have thrown this balance into question.”

“The young adults now gravitating to far right aren’t Nazis or xenophobic racists,” Paul Hockenos said at Foreign Policy. But they are discontented with the continent’s shaky post-pandemic economy. Polls show that means those young voters are abandoning left-wing outfits like the Green Party in favor of identity-driven groups like Germany’s AfD. “The system still doesn’t work for them,” said one political scientist, “so let the other guys have a try.”