The Netherlands far-right PVV Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders speaks to the media representatives following the European Parliament elections provisional results in The Hague on June 6, 2024. Emiel Muijderman | Afp | Getty Images Sweeping gains for Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party on Thursday are expected to foretell a wider shift to the … Read more
The center-right party of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte (VVD) is expected to win four seats. The official results will only be announced after voting concludes for all 27 member countries on June 9. Although not final, the Dutch result is seen as a barometer of what might await the bloc next. It seems to … Read more
Moreover, despite what Jewish voters — a tiny minority — actually decide when casting their ballots this week, it looks like the far right is set to become more dominant in the Parliament. Analysts are predicting they could secure nearly 30 percent of all votes across the 27-country bloc. Can we really live with that? … Read more
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration far-right Freedom Party won the 2023 election on a campaign that tied affordable housing to restrictions on immigration — a focus that struck a chord with young voters. In Portugal, too, the far-right party Chega, which means “enough” in Portuguese, drew on young people’s frustration with the housing crisis, … Read more
Meanwhile, hard-right parties are dominating the polls across much of Europe. In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is cruising at over 30 percent, far ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. Across the Rhine, Alternative for Germany, a party under police surveillance for its extremist views, … Read more
The National Rally is now insisting it can no longer sit with the AfD in their Identity & Democracy faction in the European Parliament. If the Nazi comments weren’t enough, last month German authorities charged one of Krah’s parliamentary assistants with spying for Beijing, and an AfD candidate has been embroiled in a cash-for-influence scandal … Read more
The tensions could further divide the Renew parliamentary faction at a time when it risks losing its status as kingmaker, with polls suggesting that parties to the right will gain seats. Hayer is campaigning against Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in France, a party whose MEPs will sit with Wilders’ lawmakers in the next … Read more
Radical right-wing voters are all too often cast as old, white men, said De Voogd. “In part, that’s shifting; and in part, that image has never been true,” he said. According to the researcher, far-right voters typically fall into three broad categories: There are conservative voters, who previously backed Christian parties or the liberals. Then … Read more
The deal still needs the endorsement of all four parties’ parliamentary factions. And the choice of a new prime minister could also still throw a last-minute spanner in the works. The announcement caps nearly six months of fraught talks between the four parties, which at one point saw the leader of the NSC walk away … Read more
As recent national elections in several European countries have shown, far-right voters no longer fit the stereotype of the angry, old white man, but now often include women, young people and even migrants. In this episode we unpack what drives voters to abandon the mainstream and more traditional party loyalties for the far right, and … Read more
