Europe is swinging to the right

It was predicted to be a political revolution, but the right-wing surge in Europe hit a speed bump in France over the weekend as left-wing groups united to keep Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) from taking over parliament.

The left-wing New Popular Front alliance came top, but with insufficient numbers to form a legislative majority. But it was a sign that French voters are still worried about the re-emergence of fascism.

RN is far from a spent force, as it is about to strike an alliance with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the European parliament, to become the third-biggest bloc in the European Union legislature.

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That achievement will make it difficult to deny that Europe is swinging to the right politically.

This is on the back of rising nationalist – and sometimes racist– sentiment centred around opposition to the wave of migrants currently sweeping across the continent.

Ironically, one of the strongest proponents of anti-immigrant sentiment, the Reform Party of Nigel Farage in the UK, will be unable to bolster the ranks of their comrades in Europe… because of Brexit, the British voters’ decision in 2016 which was punted heavily by Farage.

Interestingly, the UK’s Westminster system of democracy – based on constituency, rather than proportional representation – has seen Farage and Reform getting far fewer parliamentary seats than their electoral strength would suggest.

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Reform garnered 14% of total votes cast in last week UK polls, yet got just five seats, compared with winners Labour, which got 35% of the vote and 412 seats and the Conservative Party, which got 24% of the vote but 121 seats.

No matter the results in France and the UK, it cannot be denied that Europe, in general, is moving to the right and that this will have profound implications for the rest of the world in the years ahead.

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