The EU Elections: The March of the Right
The EU elections over June 6 to June 9 have presented a chaotically merry picture, certainly for those on the right of politics. Not that the right in question is reliably homogeneous in any sense, nor hoping for a single theme of triumph. A closer look at the gains made by the conservative side of politics, along with its saltier reactionary wings, suggests difficulty and disagreement.
In any case, papers such as The Economist were hopelessly pessimistic about the post-Eden fall, which may suggest that democracy, in all its unpredictable nastiness, is working. The lingering nature of the Ukraine War, the obstinate, enduring presences of such nationalists as Marine Le Pen in France and Viktor Orbán in Hungary, all pointing to “a period of political rudderlessness.” In truth, the rudders are being replaced.
In France, Le Pen has managed to point the gun of discontent at the centre of bureaucratic control and (hideous word) governance. The two prominent targets: President Emmanuel Macron and Paris. She has been aided by the fact that Macron has been inclined to pack key positions in government with loyal, reliable Parisians. Last February, François Bayrou, an early Macron enthusiast and Justice Minister, found it hard to accept that 11 of the 15 important ministers in the government were from the Paris area. This revealed a “growing lack of understanding between those in power and the French people at the grassroots level.”
On June 9, Le Pen proved had every reason to gloat, with the gains made by her party sufficiently terrifying French President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve parliament and call an election. Parties of the far-right came first in Austria, tied for top billing in the Netherlands and came in as runners-up in Germany (where Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats were savaged) and Romania.
The party of Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, also did well, winning 28.9% of the country’s vote in the elections. Predicted to get 24 seats in the European Parliament, the Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) have done a shedding act on neo-fascism in favour of a smoother image, while still insisting that Europe’s identity had to be defended “from every cultural subjugation that sees Europe renounce its history to adopt that of others.” Such messaging has come with slick shallowness on social media, including such posts as those featuring “L’Italia cambia l’Europa” (“Italy changes Europe”), or the voter instruction to “scrivi Giorgia” (“write Giorgia”) on their ballot.
Meloni’s march was so significant as to compel EU Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, to become asalivating groupie for the right – of sorts. Her sharp policies on migration have drawn the approval of Meloni. Speaking at April’s Maastricht Debate, organised by POLITICO and Studio Europa Maastricht, von der Leyen openly expressed her interest in linking arms with Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
The Italian PM has found herself to be an object of much political interest, indispensable to the chess pieces of Europe’s political manoeuvrings. Italy’s reactionary flame has become, for instance, a matter of much interest to Le Pen. To the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Le Pen emphasised her insistence that a hard-right bloc of parties in the European Parliament could be formed, overcoming the current division between her Identity and Democracy (ID) group and that of Meloni’s ECR.
That said, any union of faux liberal types such as von der Leyen with those of the hard right of Europe is unlikely to be a fragrant one. Von der Leyen has taken heavy shots at Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (National Rally), excoriating its pro-Russian position along with those of Germany’s AfD and Poland’s Konfederacja. “They are Putin’s puppets and proxies and they are trampling on our values.” The promise to Meloni: if you want my dour, camouflaged conservatism, forget the other reactionaries.
What was telling was that the young, having voted in 2019 for parties of the left such as the Greens, had had a change of heart. In May an Ipsos poll revealed that 34% of French voters under the age of 30 were keen to vote for the 28-year-old leader of the National Rally in the European Parliamentary elections. In Germany, the 22% of Germans between 14-29 were keen to plump for Alternative for Germany (AfD), just under double from what was registered in 2023.
For Albena Azmanova of the University of Kent, this presents a curious predicament for those on the progressive side of politics (is there such a thing anymore?). Dissatisfaction that would normally be mined by progressives for political advantage is being left over to the opposite wing of politics. “The left is failing to harness that discontent, although its trademark issues – poverty and unemployment – are now more salient for voters than the far right’s flagship of ‘immigration’.”
An unanticipated phenomenon has manifested: younger voters in France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany and Finland folding at the ballot box for parties of the right and far right. The pendulum has well and truly swung. Europe’s right, bulked by the young, is on the march.
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6 comments
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Phil Pryor -
Clakka -
old bloke -
Andrew Smith -
wam -
Clakka
Return to home pageDid common sense commit suicide or do a Lord Lucan long ago? Why are partly educated voter people now feeling empowered to put out the wrists for handcuffs, voluntarily mad? Who would punt a guess on nohopers to actually lead well? Boris Bonkfist and Mad maggot Morrison, Blot Bolsonaro, Trilobite Trump, Truculent Truss, this low standard of obvious autofraud ingestion is just sickening. Crook old vague popes, a dodgy dithering king or two, pestilential presidents, press political perverts, corporate greedites, advertising lying dogshit coating us, Pro sport run for gambling, crook food, grog, swindling.., this is modern achievement, progress? And the choking and burning are about to worsen, as if Musk-rat and Suckerburglar and Bezarse care, any more than old Weak as Water Gates.
Seems they want their sense of entitlement back so they can, with hubris disguising inherited guile, again enact the crimes of vandalism, exploitation and thievery of their progenitors and heroes.
They probably won’t let up until they’ve rendered the Earth flat, to prove their ancestors were not ignoramuses.
It’s interesting that the ‘purity’ of race is something that has to be maintained by many people. They fear that others of different skin colour, religeous following, culture will continue to interbreed with the ‘pure’ whites and the nation will be overtaken by hybrids. Melting pot stuff. On the other hand there is a striving to maintain banks of single species seeds and domestic animal clubs strive to conserve each breed as to its original type and for future cross breeding. Inbreeding has resulted in less fortunate outcomes in many cases. Indeed a ‘master race’ of pure breeding may be less likely to survive eventually against a hybrid race. In nature monocultures are more easily lost due to disease etc. Look at a packet of vegetable seeds you can buy and often the label will boast ‘hybrid vigour’.
Suboptimal analysis, e.g. ends up citing a previous IPSOS opinion poll of young people, but not the actual results?
European Parliament or EU elections, like council elections, referenda and polls, are not the main game, turnout is low (e.g. France 45%, can increase by up to 100% for national elections), younger &/or working age tend to be less motivated vs media & campaign targeting of retirees etc., the centre held and the right grouping is still a rabble (while Meloni appears to be edging back to the centre).
The author maybe disappointed on the performance of the right e.g. Abbott’s mate PM ‘mini Putin’ Orban’s lot had lowest vote ever, while the EP now has clear coalitions on left, centre, centre right and far or hard right supported by Putin, GOP, Fox etc..
The latter far right grouping all agree on disliking ‘Europe’ &/or ‘EU’, but that’s it, e.g. Poland despises Putin while the others don’t, and issue in Orban’s case dog whistling and the obstructing the EU for Russia & Anglo forces, is confronted by a former colleague and a nation that is fully supportive of the EU…..
Don’t be surprised to see Abbott’s friends in Hungary being used as a Trojan horse by Koch Network, Fox and Putin to leverage the EP right with fossil fuel groups e.g. Hungary’s state oil co, MOL and govt. foundation MCC (linked to Abbott’s employer and Sheridan too….), to stymie EU’s regulations on fossil fuels, environment etc.; before the ageing &/or regional low info voters pass on, to be ‘replaced’ by younger diverse and more educated Europeans.
Like Brexit, EU, it’s people and its sensible regulatory framework is the shared target of Putin, Orban, US/UK oligarchs of the right and fossil fuels, hence, the wishy washy attitudes towards Ukraine defending itself against corrupt white Christian authoritarianism.
All my working life was spent with 13-18 year olds. Those who were not totally indoctrinated were right then moved left. The slogans and the anti-left fervour of the right are quick persuaders. Life is slower but there is drag to the left.
Sadly, Australia will go right and Labor, without seriously attacking the ‘man’, will be lucky to ever win a majority again.
Time does not stand still, and the whole world has been well and truly primed for change. Of course the MSM is in complete chaos, collapsing in its pile of sensation-seeking excrement before our eyes. Their wretched plutocratic owners/leaders, and their piss-weak amanuensis flunkies are largely busted as a desperate and flagging olde worlde monoculture captured by neoliberals. Pollsters are on a hiding to nothing, failing to reach the diversity of populations, and being faced with respondents keeping their powder dry.
The old two-party pluralist models are at strains trying to represent a universal purpose in the face of the massive complexities of the hi-tech world which cannot be faced with simplicity and slogans The choices are now polarized between hard work and endeavour, and whining, naysaying, absolutist, nihilistic bullshit via recipes and funding from the neoliberal plutocrats now forced to reveal themselves before they die. The wars now are not so much ballistic, but crypto crime, misinformation and disinformation, which youngsters have grown up with and oldies in the main have been awakened to. The neoliberal con-job that there is no alternative but to be ruled by psychopath absolutists to manage our innate corrupt self-interest is being seen through an accumulation of devastations and economic and ecological strangulations anathema to our true nature of success by reasoned co-operation and altruism.
When crises abound, change does not take place slowly, throughout history it happens suddenly. We are now increasingly aware of the nature of tipping points. And the young being pressed by a dismal prospects, and the young pressing their elders to stop the rot, will be the ones that drive the flip.
It seems this year (or so) across the world, politics (and diplomacy) is being tested. For certain there will be those nihilistic absolutists that con themselves with borrowed ideologies and slogans, but hopefully they will be a distinct minority that becomes ineffectual. But for certain, it’s up to the politicians of hard work and endeavour for universal betterment (not per se the Keir Starmer fops) to vigorously act and demonstrate themselves as the right choice for the voters of the flip.
It seems all are pensive as we await the narrative. A narrative that admits it will take decades of planned reform, not the wave of a magic wand attached to ludicrous electoral models extant.