From Budapest and Rome to Brussels, the extreme right is making its way into Europe and wants to consolidate its presence in the June 9 elections. More and more countries are governed by ultra-conservative and Eurosceptic forces or have coalition governments in which they participate. The extreme right rules in Hungary or Finland, but also in founding countries of the Union such as Italy or the Netherlands.
The presence of the extreme right in the European Parliament is structured around two large groups, Identity and Democracy (ID) and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). According to the think tank, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Identity and Democracy, headed by Frenchwoman Marine Le Pen, may be the third political force in the European Parliament, only behind the groups with the most tradition – European People’s Party (EPP), Socialists and Democrats (S
The ECFR grants ID, which includes the Dutch Geert Wilders, the German Alice Weidel and the Italian Matteo Salvini, in addition to the French Marine Le Pen, 48 more seats than it had, going from 58 to almost a hundred.
ECR, the other large group, is led by Italian Prime Minister and President of the Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, and includes Andrzej Duda’s Law and Justice, Jimmie Åkesson’s Swedish Democrats, and Riikka Purra’s Finns Party. and the Civic Democratic Party of Czech Petr Fiala. It also has the Spanish Vox, the New Flemish Alliance of Belgium or the French Reconquista, by Eric Zemmour.
There are parties not affiliated with either of these two large groups, the most significant of which is Fidesz, the party led by the Hungarian Viktor Orbán.
The two large groups show differences between themselves. The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has not hesitated to describe the ECR leaders as “Putin’s friends.” The reality is that the parties that make up this group appear more comfortable in the orbit of the Kremlin and Beijing than in the European project.
ID does not advocate a joint project either and its parties intend to recover the national sovereignty ceded to the EU. They openly criticize the inclusion of Turkey, a candidate to join the Union for years, considering that Europe is a Christian continent.
The borders are a point of convergence between the two groups, as is the criticism of the Green Deal signed by the EU in 2020. Both ECR and ID have projects to support states to defend their borders and accelerate the return of the asylum seekers rejected by countries.
If the predictions come true, these matches are likely to finish first in nine countries – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia. And they finish as second or third force in nine others, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
The elections will be relevant for countries like France (where Le Pen’s party can gain a lot of distance from Emmanuel Macron’s party), Germany (where the AfD can hot on the heels of the CDU) or Italy, where Giorgia Meloni can accentuate its hegemony against to Matteo Salvini’s League or Antonio Tajani’s Força Italia.
