Almost one quarter of European voters now back parties labelled “far-right” by a partisan research network that has repeatedly been criticised for weaponising the term.
According to a new report tracking election results across Europe, the share of voters supporting national conservative parties has increased nearly fivefold since the mid-1990s, with particularly rapid growth over the past three years. The findings were enthusiastically reported by the UK’s left-wing Guardian newspaper, which also happens to be a partner organisation of the researchers behind the study.
If this sounds familiar, the academics behind the report belong to the PopuList project, which relies on ideologically loaded and highly flexible definitions to classify political parties—and, by extension, millions of voters—as “far-right” whenever they stray beyond a narrow Brussels consensus.
Nevertheless, the study contains one striking finding: a record share of Europeans now support anti-establishment parties. According to Matthijs Rooduijn of the University of Amsterdam, almost 30% of voters backed such parties in the most recent elections.
When we started the PopuList project in 2018, the key finding was that one in four Europeans were voting for populist parties, mostly far-left and far-right.
Now one in four are voting for far-right parties, mostly populist. It’s a big shift.
As the bedwetting histrionics continue, it’s worth bearing in mind that the ‘far-right’ label is one that the Europhiles continually apply to centre-right parties such as Reform UK. Compare that to the Guardian, which continues to pump out the sort of coverage that literally brings Jewish community protests to its front door.
There’s definitely something to be learned from the changing priorities and aspirations of European voters. The problem is that the PopuList project is less interested in understanding those voters than in categorising, stigmatising, and ultimately countering the political movements they support.
