Europe Leans Right

June 13, 2024

Most media outlets exaggerated the outcome of European Union elections this month, claiming that a right-wing tsunami had washed across Europe’s 27 countries and its 373 million voters. Some surmised the vote would undermine and destabilize the continent as it stares down the Russian menace. Others worried that more pro-Putin politicians, like the anti-democratic and obstructive Viktor Orban in Hungary, would be sent to Brussels, stirring up trouble and impeding war efforts. But they were wrong. Europe’s “right” voters were not fascists. Many were simply fed up with the continent’s costly, net-zero, climate change agenda as well as with the deluge of uninvited migrants from Africa and the Middle East. Europe’s “left” parties are pro-worker and “green” while its “center” parties tack between left and right on issues but are mostly moderate. The end result of these elections was not cataclysmic: The right was up slightly, the left was down, and the center held.