Europe's lurch to the right not ideological

The Dutch far-Right Freedom Party, headed by Geert Wilders, emerged as the single-largest party in this week’s elections in the Netherlands. Whether Wilders becomes PM will depend on his ability to shake off his taboo value for other parties and stitch up a coalition. On Friday, the biggest party in the former government, the centre-Right VVD, ruled out a role in the cabinet. The Dutch coalition process tends to take several months, and the first step began yesterday with the appointment of Freedom Party senator Gom van Strien as the scout who will hold talks with other parties.

With the Freedom Party’s victory, the Netherlands joins a growing list of EU member-states where the Right, especially the far-Right, is making strides. How this shift manifests in the June 2024 10th European Parliament polls will be critical. Europe‘s shift towards the far-Right over the last two years is something of a ‘greenlash’ – a pushback against climate policies. The 2019 European elections saw the beginning of a new Green-Left era. EU’s ambitious green deal, which batted for economic transformation to secure leadership in a climate-constrained world, became the cornerstone of this era. However, Covid-19, the Ukraine war, and an energy and cost of living crisis made this transformation difficult. This polycrisis forced Europe’s centrist and left-of-Centre parties to focus on Right-wing issues like immigration. This worked well for the Right.

Poland is an exception. Its pro-EU opposition parties defeated the nationalist Law and Justice party. This indicates that the political shift in the EU is not ideological but a response to the uncertainties that mark the present moment and difficulties that ruling parties face in tackling these challenges.