Voters across much of Europe have swung far to the right in their quest for change as they have been hit by rising energy bills and record inflation intensified by the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
ROME, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) — With successes in Italy and Sweden and a foothold in Hungary and Poland, right-wing nationalism has been on the rise in Europe in 2022.
Voters across much of Europe have swung far to the right in their quest for change as they have been hit by rising energy bills and record inflation intensified by the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
Analysts remain divided on how much of an impact the latest developments will have on European Union (EU) policy.
LURCH TO THE RIGHT
Populists on the ideological right have won increasing shares of the vote in recent parliamentary elections across Europe, a Pew Research Center analysis said in October.
The most dramatic change occurred in Italy. In September, Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party finished first in national elections and a month later she was sworn in as the country’s first ever female prime minister.
Her coalition government now includes the League, another of the country’s nationalist parties.
Also in September, the far-right Sweden Democrats became the second largest party in Sweden’s Riksdag after the Riksdag election.
Right-wing nationalism has also flourished under Viktor Orban in Hungary since 2010. Orban’s ruling Fidesz-Christian Democratic (KDNP) coalition won a landslide victory in the country’s parliamentary elections in April, enabling him to serve as prime minister for a fifth term.
In France, the far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen made record gains in parliamentary elections, becoming the largest opposition party in parliament for the first time. Poland is also ruled by a right-wing nationalist coalition.
It appears that young voters tended to “lean dramatically to the right” in France, Spain and Italy, said an article published on the Project Syndicate website.
Longing for change
While each country is obviously different, analysts see a definite trend.
The emerging right-wing nationalist parties’ “ideologies satisfy the needs of people at the moment,” Pietro Paganini, an economic and political analyst and founder of the Competere think tank, told Xinhua.
“People see that their institutions, whether they are in their home countries or especially in (the European Union’s administrative capital) Brussels are definitely not addressing their problems, so they tend to take opposing positions,” Paganini said.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is taking an increasing toll on Europe’s economies, which are facing a “toxic mix of high inflation and slowing growth,” Alfred Kammer, head of the International Monetary Fund’s Europe division, wrote in a blog in October.
“High energy price pressure, erosion of household purchasing power, a weaker external environment and tighter financing conditions are expected to tip the EU, the euro area and most member states into recession in the final quarter of the year,” the European Commission said. in its autumn forecast, which forecast economic growth in both the EU and the euro area at 0.3 percent for 2023.
“These (economic) issues are very complex,” Paganini told Xinhua. “Sometimes even what I would define as traditional policymakers can’t deal with this complexity. People are looking for easy solutions. The populists on the right are good at finding the problem. They don’t have the capacity to even identify the complexity and make it easier for people to understand.”
UNCERTAIN IMPACT
While some fear the right-wing populist parties coming to power could pose a threat to solidarity and integration across Europe, analysts recognize that because these parties must deal with pressing domestic challenges, their impact on Europe’s political changes remains uncertain.
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which in its current form has never played a role in a governing coalition in Italy before, has largely continued the previous government’s economic and energy policies, although by some measures it is more effective in to communicate the need for these policies.
Such mainstreaming dampens some of the controversy surrounding the far-right populist movements. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact in some areas, notably migrant policy, an area where Italy has taken a hard line, drawing criticism from neighboring France, the European Commission and others.
Across Europe, right-wing populist parties have pushed for government spending to soften the blow of rising prices – policies that have drawn rebuke from the European Central Bank (ECB) and contributed to rising government bond yields, especially in highly indebted countries.
Still, experts doubt whether these changes will stand the test of time.
“I don’t think we can call what’s happening in Europe a nationalist wave, but it can change,” Eelco Harteveld, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam, said in an interview.
Source: sn.dk