According to the researcher, the right wing has benefited from the change in the atmosphere, which thinks more about the problems at hand than the climate or the life chances of future generations.
Basic Finns lost almost half of their support in yesterday’s European Parliament elections. Researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Manuel Müller says that the success of basic Finns differs sharply from the electoral success of other right-wing parties.
The rise of the extreme and far-right was expected. According to Müller, this happened almost everywhere in Europe, although not quite as strongly as had been predicted.
The biggest jump happened in the Netherlands, where the Freedom Party PVV’s vote share rose from 3.5 percent in the 2019 elections to 17.7 percent. PVV previously had no seats in the European Parliament. Now it got six of them.
The French National Alliance (RN), the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) also clearly increased their number of seats.
In Finland, the Basic Finns not only lost their second seat in the European Parliament, but also clearly underperformed compared to prior expectations. This is surprising in the European picture, says Müller.
Heavy government responsibility?
According to Müller, it is difficult to give a clear reason for the poor success of basic Finns.
– In the background, the fact that the party is in the government and the fact that the supporters of basic Finns are not that interested in the European Parliament certainly have an effect, says Müller.
He reminds us that the Basic Finns are more successful in national elections. There are probably many factors involved, but still the poor success is noticeable.
Extremist parties are replaced by others
In a few European countries, there have been changes within the far-right, which have affected the power relations between the parties. For example, in Denmark, the strong right-wing populist People’s Party has lost popularity to the anti-immigration Danish Democrats, founded in 2022. Together, however, they have grown the far right.
In Italy, on the other hand, the far-right Lega party completely collapsed, but the Brothers of Italy party that emerged in its place together with the populist Five Star Movement strengthened the nationalist and populist right.
In Sweden, the popularity of the Sweden Democrats declined slightly, but it did not lose seats. The Swedish Democrats support the country’s right-wing government, but are not actually involved in the government.
The split is getting stronger
Already in the previous European elections in 2019, a division into two could be seen between the liberal and green parties on the one hand, and the far-right and extreme right on the other, says Müller.
The liberal and green parties took care of climate change, the problems of the rest of the world and the life chances of future generations. The right, on the other hand, focused on more concrete, “here and now” issues and made easy, if populist, proposals, Müller describes.
After the last election, we have experienced the corona pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the rise in the cost of living. These have strongly touched ordinary people.
– These have perhaps made people think more about themselves and less about the rest of the world. This is the reason why the greens have lost their positions and the right-wing has continued to rise, Müller reflects.
The news podcast deals with the surprising election result.