VOTERS VEER RIGHT IN EUROPE.
Before voters in 28 countries went to the polls over the past four days, member nations of the European Union were described as being at a crossroads. Support for centrist governing parties in France and Germany appeared to be waning, while right and far-right leaning options appeared to be gaining momentum.
And as the European Parliament elections drew to a close Sunday, it appeared that at a crossroads with a decision to make, many voters had veered right.
Based on exit poll results, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party declared victory in France, a narrow one, over Emmanuel Macron’s Republic on the Move. Should the result be confirmed, the defeat would be a symbolic one for the French president. It would not affect his ability to govern, but would suggest voters are increasingly rejecting his ideas.
“I see this as a victory for the people, who with pride and dignity have taken back power,” Le Pen said Sunday.
Elsewhere, in Italy, exit polls showed that Matteo Salvini’s League party would be victorious in its bid to become Italy’s largest party, earning between 27 and 31 per cent of votes.
Salvini, Italy’s interior minister, is spearheading the far-right movement in Europe, proposing to overhaul the EU from within with the creation of a far-right bloc that already has the support of Le Pen in France and farright political leaders in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark.
What unites these parties is their hardline stance against migration from the Middle East and Africa. Salvini’s rhetoric has gone as far as to warn against an “Islamic caliphate.”
A neo-nazi group in Slovakia that uses the Nazi salute and refers to NATO as a terror group, was also poised to gain seats.
In Spain, newcomer to the far-right, Vox, earned three seats, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party expanded its control of the EU parliament by winning 13 of 21 seats. The Alternative for Germany also saw a rise in its support — three per cent, according to exit polls — but the Greens were projected to benefit most from the losses of Angela Merkel’s party and its centre-left coalition.
Despite the fact it wasn’t even supposed to participate in this election, U.K. voters also appeared to have sided with the nationalist Brexit Party. In the wake of Theresa May’s resignation as prime minister, voters backed Nigel Farage’s party.