While the National Rally is at the top of voting intentions for the European elections, this right-wing trend is affecting other European countries according to the analysis of political scientist Dominique Reynié.
Six months before the European elections, the far right still has the wind in its sails. The National Rally (RN) has still led voting intentions in all polls for several weeks and the party maintains its lead of nearly ten points over the presidential majority according to the latest Odoxa survey carried out for Public Senate and published on December 19. This popularity of the extreme right in voting intentions worries Renaissance, but it is also worrying for all the parties which do not go to the extreme: “The moderate parties are in great difficulty” confirmed the political scientist and general director of Fondapol (Foundation for political innovation), Dominique Reynié, at the microphone of Classical Radio on January 4.
The far right at the head of European institutions?
But this rise of the extreme right in France is not an isolated case. “Everywhere in Europe, we are observing a very impressive right-wing movement among Europeans, which is moving very quickly towards populist right-wing movements,” points out the political scientist. If the French RN qualified for the second round of the presidential elections in 2017 and 2022, in other European countries the far right has established itself in power: in Hungary with Viktor Orban, in place since 2010, and in Poland, a country led by an ultra-conservative party since 2015 but lacking a majority in Parliament. Italy completes the trio since the election of Giorgia Meloni in September 2022. Elsewhere, such as in Slovakia and Finland, some members of the far right have climbed into the government without taking the lead.
If the far right managed to assert itself more during the European elections in June 2024, the moderate parties currently at the head of European institutions “could probably no longer co-manage European affairs, Parliament in particular, as they have been doing it since 1979” envisages the Fondapol specialist.
Dominique Reynié analyzes that France “is a right-wing country governed by rather left-wing elites” and believes that the same description could be made about Europe, given the very similar political situations. He adds, however, that if France “has not found a political class to govern it in accordance with what it is” the presidential majority, which wanted to put an end to the left-right divide, is now “magnetized by a France of right”. A force of attraction which could also be visible on a European scale?