The populist right and far right will not dominate the new European Parliament. But the election results will influence the EU’s agenda and legislation over the next five years. The European Parliament election results saw a strong performance by populist right-wing and far-right parties in many EU member-states, propelled by opposition to the Green Deal, anti-migration sentiment and economic insecurity. In France, the far-right Rassemblement National topped the poll, with more than twice as many votes as President Emmanuel Macron’s party – leading him to call snap parliamentary elections. In Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland came second, ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s social democrats. Across the EU, the vote share of parties to the right of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) rose from 18 per cent in 2019 to just over 24 per cent if we include hard-right parties currently sitting in the non-attached group.
Authors: Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform; Zselyke Csaky, Senior Research Fellow; Christina Kessler, Clara Marina O’Donnell Fellow; Zach Meyers, Assistant Director; Luigi Scazzieri, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for European Reform.
This article is available on the Centre for European Reform website.
