Populist “anti-European” parties are heading for big gains in June’s European elections that could shift the parliament’s balance sharply to the right and jeopardise key pillars of the EU’s agenda including climate action, polling suggests.
Polling in all 27 EU member states, combined with modelling of how national parties performed in past European parliament elections, shows radical right parties are on course to finish first in nine countries including Austria, France and Poland.
Projected second- or third-place finishes in another nine countries, including Germany, Spain, Portugal and Sweden, could for the first time produce a majority rightwing coalition in the parliament of Christian Democrats, conservatives and radical right MEPs.
With every economic downturn, the populists will always point the finger at migrants and “external beurocrats denying us our freedoms to self govern”. Like any snakeoil salesmen, it a tonic to cure every ailment.
That’s mostly because the “Elite” is rarely affected by these economic downturns, sometimes even gets richer quicker. That there’s a high potential for lashing out when people see the wealth gap widen one way or another, shouldn’t be a surprise.
Surprising no? But still sad as they are -again and again- too stupid to lash out at the actual reason and are easily manipulated to target someone else. And that’s usually either low income classes or foreigners, not coincidently because those are lacking a lobby.
But is it really? All of a sudden every place with unfettered immigration begins to have major economic downturns. Or is it mass immigration has put such a strain on our unprepared systems and infrastructure that our economy suffers in turn.
Unfettered immigration? Theres exactly not a single country who has that. Some more strict than others, but none unfettered.
You know what other countries have economic downturns at the moment? Damn near everyone. Get your head out of your ass and start pointing fingers in the right direction. Not the weakest or labour immigration.
Christ, this hateful bullshit has been spouted thousands of years and the only times it’s ruined societies has been when it’s not immigration, but colonisation.
How would unfettered immigration (assuming it exists) cause an economic downturn?
If it did exist (and it doesn’t), it would be an excessive cause of government spending. Money that could otherwise be used to pay for other services like health or pension spending, or subsidize (read as: “cut taxes on”) necessary stuff like food or petrol.
I think their argument per se does make sense, it’s just the initial assumption that is flawed.
But “wasting” government resources on immigrants (those few that don’t work and as such don’t enrich the country they immigrate to) would only impact the economy if the health of the economy is reliant on government help. Just because the government is spending more, doesn’t mean the economy is worse… (often time it’s actually better off with government spending). Unless we see massive tax increases in such countries that will impact wealth generation and labor costs etc. I cannot see any negative impact on economic health.
Quite the opposite. Immigration usually helps fill in gaps in “economic planning” and the extra labor helps the economy. And increased government spending for the poorer groups of the population usually boosts the economy a lot more than tax cuts. So any negative economic impact of immigration has to overcome these positive ones.
That said, there are certainly other, non-economic reasons against immigration, but that wasn’t the point.
If you are a EU citizen, please vote this summer ! European Elections 2024
How many times can someone vote for the Leopards Eating Faces party again and again after they’ve eaten your face a million times already?
Until they die, from what I can tell.
Can I have some good news sometimes to think my kids aren’t inheriting a giant warmongering sweltering shithole of a wprldt?
What? Your not training your kids to be elite combat trained post-apocalyptic survivalist weirdos?
On behalf of Britain - please don’t
I mean, if we can’t be a properly grown up functioning member of the international community any more, we should at least be a cautionary tale…
Brentry 2027 it’s happening
Ok hear an European federalist’s (me) take on this:
Yes, ID and ECR are set to gain a pretty substantial amount of seats, especially compared to the results of the previous election, as the Guardian’s infographic clearly highlights:
However, their conclusion:
As a result, the far-right ID group is projected to gain up to 40 more seats, for a total of 98, potentially making it the third political force and opening up the possibility of a “populist right” coalition (EPP, ECR, and ID) with 49% of MEPs in the new parliament
seems a bit of a stretch. While ID is firmly eurosceptic and ECR is… undecisive, EPP is firmly pro Europe. EPP has been the largest party in the European Parliament for over 20 years, and they are the ones who elected names like von der Leyen and Metsola. I wouldn’t call either “Anti-European”.
As the POLITICO “Poll of Polls” clearly highlights, the top groups aren’t set to change all that much. The most notable changes are Renew losing quite a lot of seats and ID replacing it as the 3rd political force, but EPP and S&D mantain a significant lead.
If ECR and ID ever came to building a “populist right coalition”, I doubt EPP would be on their side. I think it’s way more likely that they’d side with other forces like S&D or RE and try to stop them.
In conclusion: yeah it sucks that Renew has lost so many seats, and it also sucks that far right voters seem to prefer the way more extreme ID to the comparatively more sane ECR, but things aren’t nearly as tragic as the media is portraying them to be.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Populist “anti-European” parties are heading for big gains in June’s European elections that could shift the parliament’s balance sharply to the right and jeopardise key pillars of the EU’s agenda including climate action, polling suggests.
Projected second- or third-place finishes in another nine countries, including Germany, Spain, Portugal and Sweden, could for the first time produce a majority rightwing coalition in the parliament of Christian Democrats, conservatives and radical right MEPs.
The researchers said the implications of the vote were far-reaching, arguing the next European parliament could block laws on Europe’s green deal and take a harder line on other areas of EU sovereignty including migration, enlargement and support for Ukraine.
The left and populist right, including the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and far-right Identity and Democracy (ID), are set to emerge as the main victors, with a real possibility of entering a majority coalition for the first time.
Their voices willcarry most weight in several founding-member states, the polling suggests, with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy forecast to boost its MEP tally to 27 and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally on track to win a record 25 seats.
Populist eurosceptic parties are likely to come first in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia, and second or third in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
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