Last November, Geert Wilders’ party PVV (Party for Freedom) won 37 out of 150 parliamentary seats in the Netherlands elections. PVV had previously held 16 seats. Now, Wilders is poised to become the country’s next prime minister. This result is one of the European Union’s worst nightmare scenarios.
It’s not just the Netherlands. Forecasts show that nationalist parties are surging in Finland, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Cyprus. As Nigel Farage recently said in The Telegraph, “UKIP and the Brexit Party were ahead of their time. The populist surge that we will see in the European elections next spring will mark the beginning of the end of the EU in its current centralized form.”
There is also a sea change in voting patterns, with younger voters joining the European nationalism movement. Populist right-wing parties in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have substantial backing from younger voters. In France and Spain, the youth have shifted away from centrist parties and are now supporting either the far Left or the far Right. This trend is also noticeable in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark.
Reasons for this shift to the right include concerns about the unadulterated mass migration of low-skilled workers, a refusal to criminalize Islamic radicalization, a surge in crime, an increase in cultural relativism, widespread budgetary corruption, anti-farming legislation, waning support for the Ukraine war, anxieties about the Green New Deal, and countless other grievances. To put it mildly, most agree that centrist parties across Europe have failed.
To make matters worse, disenchantment and confusion are rampant among the European voting public. Many are terrified at the possibility of the destruction of individual national identities and hundreds of years of history, not to mention the less-than-ideal economic situations. Others are perplexed. According to a recent study published in European Union Politics, a majority of voters perceive the EU as less democratic than it is, and they believe that the European Commission can overrule its member states. The study also found that many voters think members of the European Parliament are not even democratically elected.
The EU is also planning to increase its membership; Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia are all rumored to be in line to join. This comes at a time when the EU needs more money for its programs and defense and wishes to grow the socialist superstate while ramping up more and more regulation.
The shift from centrist parties has resulted in a new type of conservatism. It has also encouraged the left-wing and their socialist ideologies, much to their own detriment. This moment in the conservative movement represents a pivotal opportunity to unite the old Right—those with religious and traditionalist views—with the new Right, which includes those who skew socially liberal but are staunchly anti-immigrant and anti-globalist, with protectionist overtones.
Hungarian politician Judit Varga has emphasized the need for change in June as a way to avoid drastic transformations in Europe, expressing concerns about “mass migration, betrayal of national minorities, erosion of Christian roots, and the loss of cultural consensus.” She could not be more correct in her assumptions. If the Right does sweep elections this summer, the number of Eurosceptic MEPs in Parliament identifying as hard Right will be over 25%. Combine this with moderate conservatives, and the EU will see a new center of influence, one that is distinctly right-wing.
The increase in right-wing MEPs carries the potential for a revolutionary impact on EU legislation, both with existing and future laws. Eurosceptic MEPs and the center-right establishment will develop by consolidating conservative and hard-right parties within Eurosceptic groups and seizing the narrative, acquiring extra funding and more speaking time in parliament, and delivering a significant blow to the long-term power of the socialist EU agenda.
In the years that have followed Brexit, ever more countries have been redirecting power away from Brussels and towards their nations. The progressive ivory tower of the EU is at risk of tumbling; we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of the EU in its current form. Despite eight years having elapsed since Brexit, Britain is only now figuring out how best to overrule the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights). Though part of the Council of Europe and not the EU, the ECHR is obstructing the reform of Britain’s immigration policy.
On the continent, it has been noted that the yearly costs of “non-Western immigration amount to €17 billion and the annual net benefits of Western immigration total one billion euros” in the Netherlands alone. The upcoming elections are, without a doubt, a challenge to Brussels’ influence over EU member states’ national sovereignty and could provide a mandate to stave off the encroaching bureaucracy that threatens the cultural and socioeconomic fabric of member nations. The prospect of what lies ahead calls to mind a famous line from Margaret Thatcher’s 1988 speech to the College of Europe at the Belfry of Bruges: “The European Community is one manifestation of that European identity, but it is not the only one.”
Populists Surge Ahead of June Elections
Photo: Patricia de Melo Moreira / AFP
Last November, Geert Wilders’ party PVV (Party for Freedom) won 37 out of 150 parliamentary seats in the Netherlands elections. PVV had previously held 16 seats. Now, Wilders is poised to become the country’s next prime minister. This result is one of the European Union’s worst nightmare scenarios.
It’s not just the Netherlands. Forecasts show that nationalist parties are surging in Finland, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Cyprus. As Nigel Farage recently said in The Telegraph, “UKIP and the Brexit Party were ahead of their time. The populist surge that we will see in the European elections next spring will mark the beginning of the end of the EU in its current centralized form.”
There is also a sea change in voting patterns, with younger voters joining the European nationalism movement. Populist right-wing parties in Italy, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria have substantial backing from younger voters. In France and Spain, the youth have shifted away from centrist parties and are now supporting either the far Left or the far Right. This trend is also noticeable in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark.
Reasons for this shift to the right include concerns about the unadulterated mass migration of low-skilled workers, a refusal to criminalize Islamic radicalization, a surge in crime, an increase in cultural relativism, widespread budgetary corruption, anti-farming legislation, waning support for the Ukraine war, anxieties about the Green New Deal, and countless other grievances. To put it mildly, most agree that centrist parties across Europe have failed.
To make matters worse, disenchantment and confusion are rampant among the European voting public. Many are terrified at the possibility of the destruction of individual national identities and hundreds of years of history, not to mention the less-than-ideal economic situations. Others are perplexed. According to a recent study published in European Union Politics, a majority of voters perceive the EU as less democratic than it is, and they believe that the European Commission can overrule its member states. The study also found that many voters think members of the European Parliament are not even democratically elected.
The EU is also planning to increase its membership; Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia are all rumored to be in line to join. This comes at a time when the EU needs more money for its programs and defense and wishes to grow the socialist superstate while ramping up more and more regulation.
The shift from centrist parties has resulted in a new type of conservatism. It has also encouraged the left-wing and their socialist ideologies, much to their own detriment. This moment in the conservative movement represents a pivotal opportunity to unite the old Right—those with religious and traditionalist views—with the new Right, which includes those who skew socially liberal but are staunchly anti-immigrant and anti-globalist, with protectionist overtones.
Hungarian politician Judit Varga has emphasized the need for change in June as a way to avoid drastic transformations in Europe, expressing concerns about “mass migration, betrayal of national minorities, erosion of Christian roots, and the loss of cultural consensus.” She could not be more correct in her assumptions. If the Right does sweep elections this summer, the number of Eurosceptic MEPs in Parliament identifying as hard Right will be over 25%. Combine this with moderate conservatives, and the EU will see a new center of influence, one that is distinctly right-wing.
The increase in right-wing MEPs carries the potential for a revolutionary impact on EU legislation, both with existing and future laws. Eurosceptic MEPs and the center-right establishment will develop by consolidating conservative and hard-right parties within Eurosceptic groups and seizing the narrative, acquiring extra funding and more speaking time in parliament, and delivering a significant blow to the long-term power of the socialist EU agenda.
In the years that have followed Brexit, ever more countries have been redirecting power away from Brussels and towards their nations. The progressive ivory tower of the EU is at risk of tumbling; we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of the EU in its current form. Despite eight years having elapsed since Brexit, Britain is only now figuring out how best to overrule the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights). Though part of the Council of Europe and not the EU, the ECHR is obstructing the reform of Britain’s immigration policy.
On the continent, it has been noted that the yearly costs of “non-Western immigration amount to €17 billion and the annual net benefits of Western immigration total one billion euros” in the Netherlands alone. The upcoming elections are, without a doubt, a challenge to Brussels’ influence over EU member states’ national sovereignty and could provide a mandate to stave off the encroaching bureaucracy that threatens the cultural and socioeconomic fabric of member nations. The prospect of what lies ahead calls to mind a famous line from Margaret Thatcher’s 1988 speech to the College of Europe at the Belfry of Bruges: “The European Community is one manifestation of that European identity, but it is not the only one.”
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