European Parliament Turns Right, But Only Slightly
A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of mostly centre-left, anti-immigration parties we conventionally call 'far-right'
The EU Parliament elections this weekend were marked by the humiliating defeats of globalist Emmanuel Macron, the Prime Minister of France, and socialist Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany.
Left-wing parties shrank, and the Greens were reduced to near insignificance. Meanwhile, parties labelled as ‘far-right’ and right-leaning independents, once marginalised, now gain strength and begin to significantly influence the design of a new, perhaps more conservative, political face in Europe.
The populist wave, which started with Trump and Brexit in 2016, seems to have finally reached continental Europe!
There’s reason only to celebrate, right? Not exactly. As with all things ‘Europe’ and all things ‘right-wing wins election,’ maybe a healthy dose of scepticism is in order.
First, as seen after the victories of Trump and Brexit, the establishment’s reaction against conservative democratic advances is always brutal and almost immediate, exploiting the typical disorganization of the right, which tends to shy away from deep state politics, only to get punished by it.
Second, despite the media’s scaremongering over the European ‘far-right,’ in the style of the ‘basket of deplorables’ of MAGA Republicans, with few exceptions, the European ‘right’ substantially differs from that on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s not like Europe is going red; it is slightly going bluish-purple.
For example, besides immigration, Marine Le Pen’s party campaign focused on issues considered centrist or even left-wing, such as civil servants’ pay, universal healthcare, and pension increases.
Issues of the so-called ‘culture wars,’ such as abortion, gun ownership, and increasingly, gender ideology and even euthanasia, are considered ‘settled’ and mostly ignored by the European right — again, with few exceptions like Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia and Vox in Spain. The romantic vision of the resurgence of Europe as the centre of Christendom is nonexistent on the continent.
In Europe, the conservative agenda is geared towards a nationalist sentiment against the centralization of the EU (or ‘Euroskepticism’), stricter immigration controls — sometimes advocating restrictions on the advance of Islam — and a more rational approach to environmental policies, in opposition to the ‘climate change’ hysteria. Yet, these issues typically gain attention not for their own sake but mainly because of their impact on housing, social welfare, crime rates, and the cost of living, reflecting a more practical rather than purely ideological approach to policy-making… [Continue reading]
