The rise of the Right and the European Union

[dinny_g]

With right wing Gert Wilders winning the majority of seats in the Netherlands GE and likely to become PM, there are more and more EU countries under right wing control.

In addition to the Netherlands, right-wing or far-right nationalist parties are the ruling party in Italy (Brothers of Italy, Lega), in Hungary (Fidesz) and in Poland (United Right), part of the government in Finland (Finns Party) , while in Sweden (Swedish Democrats) support the government.

Is there any risk that this might signal a shift in direction in the European Union or is the pace of structural change in the EU so slow that it would take a long term sustained shift to the right to see any real change ?

[ZedLeg]

Most of the far right politicians in Europe are anti EU too so I wouldn't be surprised to see more brexit style referendums happening.

Between the ancap libertarian in Argentina and Wilder in The Netherlands, it's been quite a week for people voting in headbangers.

[DeskJockey]

It is both scary and saddening how short memories are and how selfishly people vote.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Most of the far right politicians in Europe are anti EU too so I wouldn't be surprised to see more brexit style referendums happening.

Between the ancap libertarian in Argentina and Wilder in The Netherlands, it's been quite a week for people voting in headbangers.

And that's before you get the more acceptable faces of right-leaning politicians that are pushing. I see Barnier has been in the news again this week, this time regarding state protections over immigration rules.

[DeskJockey]

Don't forget the Danish People's Party from that list. While they've lost a great deal of power and influence in the last five or so years, they were a dominant force dragging Denmark to the right for well over a decade, and made great progress in legitimising demonisation of immigrants and breaking precedent to achieve their ambitions while propping up weak Conservative/liberal-right governments.

Others will have taken note and learnt from them.

[ZedLeg]

I'm kind of hoping this Wilders news will give people a shake tbh. I can't think of anyone else quite so hateful at the head of a western government.

[Mito Man]

Think this needs to give politicians a shake more than anything else. Most of the countries in Europe are in the same boat and voters seem to be focused on immigration and cost of living. In that light the recent election results are not that surprising.

Was reading earlier that Wilders is also against a lot of the climate change policies - previous policies made life extremely difficult for Dutch farmers - I’m sure we all remember their farmers blocking all the main roads in their many protests. All of this needlessly increasing the price of food there. And you look at the NL, tiny country, almost everyone drives EVs and cycles anyway, but it still isn’t doing enough to save the planet…

You can only poke a bear so many times and you risk a result like that, and undoing decades of work. So yeah, the centre leaning politicians need to do the thinking here but good luck with that.

[duncs500]

and in Poland (United Right)

I don't think Poland is a good example. They're just in the process of getting booted out.

[V8Granite]

Think this needs to give politicians a shake more than anything else. Most of the countries in Europe are in the same boat and voters seem to be focused on immigration and cost of living. In that light the recent election results are not that surprising.

Was reading earlier that Wilders is also against a lot of the climate change policies - previous policies made life extremely difficult for Dutch farmers - I’m sure we all remember their farmers blocking all the main roads in their many protests. All of this needlessly increasing the price of food there. And you look at the NL, tiny country, almost everyone drives EVs and cycles anyway, but it still isn’t doing enough to save the planet…

You can only poke a bear so many times and you risk a result like that, and undoing decades of work. So yeah, the centre leaning politicians need to do the thinking here but good luck with that.

Yeah in the Netherlands they’ve gone stupid. Pay to put cows in a shed, pay to get them out a shed, we know better than you dumb farmers essentially, stupid politicians.

We have 96% efficiency in some of the plants in the Netherlands and they still expected more so finer businesses.

I think it’s people sick of being ignored by people who aren’t living in the same world as them.

9pm curfew suggested by police in Malmo in Sweden due to so many sexual assaults by primarily immigrant groups. Still, more immigrants please as we want to give everyone a cuddle.

I can definitely see why they get voted in, they hope they will fix their biggest issues they see as hurting their country and then hopefully vote them out. The really horrible part will be if they don’t get voted out and it’s the new norm, which is a scary thought.

Dave!