The Many Versions of Europe’s Right Wing

Marine Le Pen, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Anyone with even a mild understanding of party politics knows that political parties in any country are made up of myriad factions and sub-factions, with opposing or complimentary views stemming from ideologies that don’t always align. Now compound that problem across the more than two dozen nations that make up the EU and you end up with groups of “right wing” and “left wing” parties that don’t conform to any one definition of those terms. In The Wall Street Journal, Laurence Norman discusses the differences Europe’s growing right wing is grappling with as it seeks to topple the left wing’s dominance of the continent. He writes:

Right-wing nationalist parties look set to surge in elections across Europe this week, but the shock wave will travel slowly due to rifts among the political forces.

Many of the parties see former President Donald Trump as a model. They pledge to peel back Brussels’ power and shift European Union policy on hot-button issues including migration and climate policies.

Balazs Orban, political director for Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, believes the EU elections put a long-elusive goal within reach: building a single nationalist alliance to reshape the bloc.

Across Europe, opposition to the EU’s expanding powers is increasing, he said. A strong right-wing result this week, buttressed with a potential Trump victory in November, could force EU leaders to abandon their search for an ever more centralized bloc, believes Orban, who is no relation to the prime minister.

“I think in the short term, the entire political environment can change,” he said.

The initiative is hitting setbacks.

Relatively moderate right-wing leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, are noncommittal and eager to explore ties with center-right politicians.

France’s more hard-line National Rally, meanwhile, broke ties last month with its EU partner, the Alternative for Germany, after spying allegations and other scandals at the AfD.

Jan Zahradil, an EU lawmaker and former president of the European Conservatives and Reformists, one of the bloc’s two right-wing political groups, said this week’s vote could change the political atmosphere. But he believes it will take many nationalist victories in member state elections over coming years to build a new force that could reshape Brussels.

“It will be a process. It won’t be a revolution,” Zahradil said.

The nationalist right-wing agenda faces two significant hurdles in Europe because the EU is a grouping of 27 sovereign states, not one federal state like the U.S. To reach decisions on most big issues, governments must compromise. Adding complexity, leaders win a seat at the EU table through their national elections—not EU-wide elections—and domestic political pressures make it hard to forge a pan-EU agenda.

Up to 370 million EU voters go to the polls from Thursday through Sunday to pick lawmakers for the European Parliament, a body whose main power lies in amending or blocking EU initiatives. It must also approve the EU’s next leadership team.

Turnout is usually modest but the elections offer a twice-a-decade barometer of Europe’s political mood. Some recent polls suggested nationalist parties could win close to 200 of the parliament’s 720 seats, a 50% rise on the 2019 result.

Right-wing politicians say they have much common ground. They want to tighten restrictions on asylum seekers and reverse climate rules like the 2035 ban on sales of new carbon dioxide-emitting vehicles. They seek to restore national powers over social issues that they contend liberal officials in Brussels seek to advance, such as LGBTQ rights. And they don’t want EU officials doing what they did to Hungary: withholding billions of euros in EU funds because the bloc’s executive body alleges Budapest was breaching rules.

The parties oppose what they argue is a dangerous expansion of Brussels’ political muscle but that EU supporters see as a pragmatic response to recent crises. Pro-EU politicians argue there is a fallacy at the heart of the nationalist critique of Brussels: Almost everything that happens there has the backing of at least a clear majority of the bloc’s elected governments.

The EU in recent years has played a central role in supporting Ukraine and sanctioning Russia. The EU approved an ambitious Green Deal and issued large-scale EU common debt for the first time to raise funds that Brussels controls.

The rise of right-wing nationalists has already shifted the center on some issues, especially migration. When Orban during Europe’s 2015 migration crisis pushed back asylum seekers and built a border fence, it was widely attacked. Now, other governments have followed suit.

Many nationalist leaders are charismatic political veterans.

Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders, who has been under security protection for two decades for his anti-Muslim rhetoric, stunned pundits in November when his party shot to first place in parliamentary elections. Wilders will be the power broker behind a right-wing coalition expected to take office soon, which wants to opt-out from EU rules on accepting asylum seekers and forcibly deport people who lack a residence permit.

Orban, Hungary’s longtime leader and a harsh EU critic, promises a Brussels overhaul. Orban is a big fan of Trump and the feeling is mutual: Trump hailed him as “a smart guy and tough” this week, noting his antimigration stance.

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