The relentless rise of the populist right in Europe has been confirmed by provisional first results of elections held yesterday in three different countries: Poland, Portugal and Romania.
In Poland, there will be a run-off in the second round of the presidential election. This is after Rafal Trzaskowski, the centre-left candidate close to the Civic Coalition government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, was run to an unexpectedly close second place by the ultra-conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki, who is backed by the former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. Ominously for the Left, the third and fourth places were also taken by ultra right-wing candidates, whose votes are now likely to go to Nawrocki in the second round.
The political wind in Europe for the past decade has been blowing strongly to the right
In Romania, there was better news for the pro-EU centre. With 90 per cent of the vote in the final round of the presidential election counted, the centre-left mayor of the capital Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, was enjoying a comfortable surprise seven-point lead over the ultra-right populist Georgei Simeon, who won the first round and who polls had predicted to win. Both Simeon and the Polish ultra-right candidates campaigned on a programme of patriotic nationalism and are sceptical of Europe’s support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. An earlier presidential election in Romania was cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court late last year after another ultra-right candidate’s winning campaign was accused of being funded by Putin’s Russia.
In the third of the weekend’s elections – a snap parliamentary general election in Portugal – the ruling centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) government was returned with around 32 per cent of the poll. But in a shock result, an ultra-right populist party called Chega, was running neck and neck in second place with the opposition Socialists. Both polled around 23 per cent: the best result for the far right in Portugal since the overthrow of the Salazar dictatorship half a century ago. Like its sister parties across the continent, Chega had campaigned against mass migration and the EU.
The political wind in Europe for the past decade has been blowing strongly to the right, with declining support for old, established left-wing and liberal centre parties. The issue of uncontrolled immigration – especially from the Islamic world – which has fuelled the rise of the right is not going to disappear any time soon.
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