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european parliament
European Parliament to Debate Spyware After 'Brazen Targeting' of EU Lawmaker Who Probed Pegasus
Civil society groups and experts said that "the EU must act now to defend independent oversight, protect fundamental rights, and ensure that spyware abuse in Europe is met with accountability, not impunity."
Jul 06, 2026
The European Parliament narrowly voted Monday to hold a debate on spyware after recent revelations that the phone of Stelios Kouloglou, a Greek journalist and former member of the European Parliament, "was repeatedly hacked with NSO Group's Pegasus" while he sat on the body's committee investigating abuses of the technology.
The vote came amid a fresh wave of calls for action. Elina Castillo Jiménez, advocacy and policy adviser for Amnesty International's Security Lab, said in a Monday statement that "the brazen targeting of someone in his position underlines how inadequate the current system is, and is yet another wake-up call that the protections that were put in place to prevent this kind of abuse are still not being implemented in Europe."
"Three years ago, the European Parliament's PEGA Committee, on which Stelios Kouloglou sat, issued clear and detailed recommendations for how to close the gaps that allow this abuse to continue. We are still waiting for implementation. Delaying it sends the wrong message about impunity in the surveillance industry."
Castillo Jiménez argued that "European leaders must find the political will needed to protect people from spyware abuse. An independent and impartial investigation into this attack, together with a roadmap for implementing PEGA recommendations, is urgently needed. If an elected member of parliament is not safe from unlawful surveillance, then no one is."
Amnesty was also part of a Monday joint statement with individual experts and organizations including Access Now, Center for Democracy and Technology Europe, Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and more, calling out the European Union for failing "to deliver a meaningful, EU-wide response to the proliferation and abuse of commercial spyware."
Global calls for restrictions on surveillance technology have mounted since the Pegasus Project—an international media consortium led by the media nonprofit Forbidden Stories, with tech assistance from Amnesty—published a 2021 exposé of the Israeli firm's software that was developed to secretly infiltrate mobile phones.
Kouloglou, who left the European Parliament two years ago, was appointed to serve as a substitute member of its PEGA Committee on March 24, 2022. That October, his Apple iPhone was infected with the spyware, according to research released Friday by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto in Canada.
The first documented hacking occurred while Kouloglou was at a hospital, where he was visited by Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis—who, as the Citizen Lab explained, "has worked closely on mercenary spyware issues in Greece, has testified to the PEGA committee, and was himself targeted with Intellexa's Predator spyware."
The following March, as Kouloglou left Athens for Brussels, his phone was again infected with Pegasus. The lab noted that the second hacking happened as he and Koukakis were making tentative plans to meet over WhatsApp, "the PEGA Committee was engaged in intense discussions related to the final drafting process," and PEGA Rapporteur MEP Sophie in 't Veld was in Greece with another committee delegation that questioned Greek officials on the country's scandal involving other spyware.
The forensic analysis also found that "Kouloglou received multiple Apple threat notifications about targeting with mercenary spyware on three occasions: March 2, 2023, August 29, 2023, and April 10, 2024," the lab said. "It is important to note that threat notifications from Apple and other companies are not real-time alerts. They are typically sent to users in batches, often months or more after targeting takes place. Kouloglou reports to us that he did not recall receiving the Apple notifications we observed."
The Citizen Lab acknowledged that "we have no indications that this hacking was the work of the Greek government," though it does appear to be the same operator who targeted seven Russian- and Belarusian-speaking independent journalists and opposition activists based in Europe, whose experiences were detailed in its May 2024 joint report with Access Now.
Although there were some known cases of MEPs being targeted with Pegasus before the European Parliament's panel was created, the lab stressed, "this is the first time a member of the PEGA Committee has been publicly identified as a victim" of this particular spyware while serving on it.
Reuters reported that while NSO did not respond to requests for comment, Apple said the vulnerability referred to in the Citizen Lab report has been patched. The European Parliament told the news outlet that its spyware screening tools had been available to all lawmakers since 2022 and its information technology security services "constantly monitor cybersecurity threats as well as potential cyberattacks against its working environment."
However, that's not enough for critics like In 't Veld, who is also no longer an MEP and pointed out to Politico that hundreds of politicians, including European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, have been targeted by various tech.
"If attempts to target the phone of the president of the European Parliament, or members of the European Commission, does not trigger sufficient reaction, [and] is not enough to break the deadlock, then what is?" she asked
The coalition of groups and tech experts similarly said in their Monday statement: "These incidents all point to a structural failure to adequately and seriously respond to the spyware crisis in Europe. This latest revelation should be treated as a rule of law emergency, threatening the very foundations of our society."
"Europe cannot continue moving from scandal to scandal without consequence. The targeting of a member of the European Parliament involved in investigating spyware abuse should mark a turning point," the coalition said. "The EU must act now to defend independent oversight, protect fundamental rights, and ensure that spyware abuse in Europe is met with accountability, not impunity."
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the lab, told The Guardian last week that "this case is the ultimate irony of Europe's spyware crisis. Someone on the very committee tasked with investigating Pegasus gets infected by it. And what has happened since? The parliament looks the other way when new European spyware abuses emerge."
"I can tell you how the next chapter will go: more hacked parliamentarians," he warned. "In fact, I suspect there are members voting and attending high-level meetings with no idea that their phone has been turned into a spy in their pocket."
Scott-Railton welcomed Monday's vote to hold a debate later this week, and listed some key questions on social media:
In addition to urging investigations by European Union institutions, the Citizen Lab recommended that other members and their staff immediately seek forensic screening of their devices, exercise vigilance for state-sponsored attack warnings, and enable Lockdown mode on iPhones and Advanced Protect for Android.
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Palestine Defenders Decry 'Intolerable' Arrest of French Politician Rima Hassan
"Once again, the offense of glorifying terrorism is being used to repress a Palestinian activist known worldwide for her fight against genocide," lamented one attorney.
Apr 02, 2026
Police in Paris apprehended and briefly detained European Parliament Member Rima Hassan Thursday on suspicion of "apology for terrorism"—an allegation critics slammed as "judicial harassment" aimed at silencing her outspoken criticism of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and the French government's support for it.
Hassan, who represents the leftist La France Insoumise (LFI, or France Unbowed in English) party in the European Parliament, was summoned as part of an investigation by the National Center for Combating Online Hate (PNLH), Le Parisiene first reported.
The newspaper also reported that "a few grams" of a synthetic drug—possibly 3-MMC—were found on Hassan, allegations that sparked skeptical reactions.
PNLH is probing a since-deleted March 26 post on the social media site X in which Hassan referred to Kōzō Okamoto, a member of the Japanese Red Army who, along with two others, killed 26 people and wounded 80 more in the name of Palestinian liberation during a 1972 massacre at Lod Airport in Israel.
Hassan, a descendant of Palestinians ethnically cleansed from their homeland during the foundation of the modern Israeli state, was born in a refugee camp in Syria and emigrated to France as a child.
The Sorbonne-educated jurist was one of the leaders of the June 2025 Gaza Freedom Flotilla Madleen mission, along with climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and others. Hassan and others aboard the Madleen were intercepted by Israeli forces and arrested in international waters as they attempted to deliver food, children’s prosthetics, and other desperately needed supplies to Gaza’s besieged and starving people. Hassan said that she was beaten in Israeli custody.
While far-right and pro-Israel French lawmakers celebrated Hassan's detention and called for her to be stripped of parliamentary immunity, Palestine defenders condemned the arrest.
"Once again, the offense of glorifying terrorism is being used to repress a Palestinian activist known worldwide for her fight against genocide," said leftist lawyer Elsa Marcel. "While Israel bombs Iran and Lebanon and colonization accelerates in the West Bank, the French state continues to repress the voices fighting for the liberation of Palestine. Immediate release!"
LFI French National Assembly Member Gabrielle Cathala voiced her "full support for Rima Hassan" in a post on X.
"In violation of her parliamentary immunity, she is currently being held in custody for a simple tweet that had nothing to do with 'apology for terrorism,'" she wrote. "This judicial harassment must stop."
"If this is already happening, just imagine what would occur in the event of a vote on the Yadan Law," Cathala added, referring to a highly controversial bill critics say would criminalize anti-Zionism by conflating opposition to Israel with animus toward Jewish people, aligning with the dubious International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism.
Soutien à ma camarade et collègue Rima Hassan, en garde à vue pour un tweet, alors que le génocide à Gaza se poursuit et que les palestinien•nes subissent désormais un apartheid par le gouvernement d’extrême droite israélien.
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— François Piquemal (@francoispiquemal.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 6:51 AM
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the de facto LFI leader and a former European Parliament member, said on Bluesky: "The political police have once again summoned Rima Hassan for questioning regarding a retweet from March. Parliamentary immunity, then, no longer exists in France."
"It is intolerable," he added. "The Yadan Law was not passed—yet is it already being enforced?"
Hassan was previously summoned by authorities following a December 2024 complaint over social media posts, including one in which she asserted, “If Franco-Israelis are allowed to serve in the Israeli army while enjoying the gains of dual citizenship, every Franco-Palestinian must be able to join the Palestinian armed resistance, the legitimacy of which is recognized by [United Nations] resolutions on the right to self-determination of peoples."
Since she started speaking out against the Gaza genocide, Hasan has been subjected to online bullying, including death and rape threats and doxing.
Last week, Hassan was denied entry into Canada—where she was scheduled to speak at multiple conferences in Montréal and meet with left-wing pro-Palestine members of Québec's National Assembly—following concerns from the pro-Israel groups B’nai Brith Canada and the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs. Hassan attended the conferences remotely.
“The revocation of [Hassan's] travel authorization is part of a worrying trend of restricting freedom of expression and movement of political representatives," LFI said in a statement, "as well as part of a broader pattern of censorship affecting democratic debate."
Other Palestine defenders have been targeted by the French government, including Olivia Zemor, president of the advocacy group Europalestine, who last week was hit with a 24-month suspended sentence for "apology for terrorism" due to her support for Palestinian rights.
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French Left Made a Heroic Dent, But the Far-Right March Continues in Europe
Le Pen took advantage of widespread dissatisfaction with Macron. But now the ball is in the court of the left, and the weather forecast is not too bright.
Jul 11, 2024
In the last few months, Europe has been in a social and political turmoil of disturbing proportions. The main issues, such as increased migration, the cost of living, and national security, are pushing climate catastrophe and serious alternatives to capitalism to the background. Extreme right-wing parties are on the rise while the left is obviously having trouble reaching potential supporters. Or so it has seemed.
One of the reasons for the rise of right-wing populists is that dissatisfied citizens can relate to their emotional, nostalgic rhetoric about homelands invaded by migrants that endanger “our” way of life and identity by taking away jobs, housing, and security. In addition, these populists are downplaying the need for serious measures to slow down climate change by insisting, simplistically and manipulatively, that they want to spare ordinary people the expense of costly projects.
By contrast, left wing parties are warning that security must be secured for the future, keeping climate change and the resolution of international conflicts in the foreground.
Return Visit
The migration issue remains fertile ground for right-wing mobilization and manipulation. The radical right chooses not to speak about movements of population in general terms. They ignore the fact that migration, as a trend, is as old as humankind. These days it even represents a form of countermovement. After centuries of exploration and later colonialization that started from Europe, people are now coming to the Old Continent for a return visit. Their countries were often left devastated when Europeans decided to leave, and now they are searching for a new beginning on the soil of their conquerors. Or they are refuges from the wars started, helped, or provoked by the West.
When the numbers of newcomers start to be overwhelming, problems are inevitable. In Western Europe, the greatest cumulative impact of the migrations has been in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, and Sweden. The right-wing parties there are vehemently promising to do something without proposing any workable solution. In fairness, the countries of Europe haven’t been able to come up with any convincing and effective common strategy for many decades. The result is polarization, and a lack of security for all.
In The Netherlands, the far right has turned this perennial problem into an electoral opportunity.
Elections and Drama
The Dutch elections, in which the big winner was the Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders, are seven months in the past, but only a few days ago the new government was sworn in by the king. Long-standing Prime Minister Mark Rutte handed over the keys of the office to his successor Dick Schoof, jumped on his bicycle, and rode happily into the sunset, or more precisely, to his new post as the head of NATO. Schoof was the secretary-general at the Ministry of Justice and Security from 2020 to 2024. He was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA) for over 30 years until he left in early 2021. Now, without party affiliation, he’s in charge of the extra parliamentary cabinet composed of several parties anchored by the PVV.
Schoof’s baptism of fire took place at the beginning of July, during his first address to the House of Representatives. It was not a pleasant occasion and most of the time he was under attack both from the opposition and from members of his cabinet. He failed to reproach two of his ministers, both from PVV, for racist remarks concerning women with headscarves, the replacement of the population, and the spreading of conspiracy theories. The opposition was far from satisfied, and so was Wilders, who expected Schoof to protect his ministers whatever they say. Cracks in the right-wing coalition are already visible, journalists will have no shortage of scandals to report on, and the politically inexperienced Schoof will have difficulty holding everything together.
The EU parliamentary elections have been expected with dread by left and progressive forces. For some time, it seemed inevitable that the right would achieve overwhelming success. The Italian Fratelli d’Italia, the Alternative for Germany, and the French National Rally expected to win the elections. As it happened, they came close. The results point to a strong shift in the political atmosphere in Europe compared to the previous round of votes in 2019, though the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) remains the strongest group in the European Parliament, which is good news for its leader, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The new parliament is going to be less environmentally friendly, more fragmented, and increasingly unwelcoming toward migrants. The Greens, which made strong gains in the 2019 elections, took a major hit by losing 19 seats. On the other hand, these elections are a sort of referendum for national leaders. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) suffered a defeat, while the extreme-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), scored its best results in history. President Emmanuel Macron is the big loser and Marine Le Pen the big winner, as is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. For Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, it was the worst-ever result in a European Parliament election. His friend Geert Wilders’ far-right party also fell short of expectations and came in behind a Left-Green alliance.
Two recent elections also kept the emotions flying high. In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party won big and the Tories lost after 14 years in power. Tory leader Rishi Sunak has resigned, and he has no obvious job to bike off to. The centrist Liberal Democrats made some gains. Smaller parties like the Greens, the far-right Reform UK party of Nigel Farage, and independent candidates also picked up several seats. Farage is satisfied and optimistic: “This is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,” he declared in the early hours of Friday morning.”
Who will be stunned and how is anybody’s guess. But after the victory, the Labour Party will have to move quickly to achieve the change it has promised, such as restoring the health of Britain’s ailing National Health Service, improving transport, curbing the costs of living, strengthening the country’s ties with its European partners, and tackling problems of illegal migration in a gentler way. The center left must still prove itself, and Jeremy Corbyn, further to the left, will no doubt be watching carefully from the seat in the House of Commons that he won again.
The polls indicated a Labour victory in the UK well in advance, while in France the situation was unpredictable up to the last moment. The winners are the newly established New Popular Front (NFP) alliance that brings together leftists from different parties. Their proclaimed goals are to cap prices of essential goods like fuel and food, raise the minimum wage to a net 1,600 euros per month, increase wages for public sector workers, and impose a wealth tax. They want to govern, but it remains to be seen how they will manage. The general atmosphere in France is one of relief that the far right is stopped for the moment. But the key question is whether the “awkward” leftist alliance hastily put together by Communists, Greens, and Socialists will manage to put aside their differences and agree on a common course. National Rally leader Jordan Bardella called the cooperation between anti-RN forces a “disgraceful alliance” that would paralyze France.
Rising Right
Le Pen took advantage of widespread dissatisfaction with Macron. But now the ball is in the court of the left, and the weather forecast is not too bright. However, the undoubtedly positive message of the French elections is that the left can come together and do well when the motivation is strong enough.
But new right-wing alliances are taking shape. The brand new one that Wilders recently joined a few days ago is Patriots for Europe, formed by right-wing parties from Czechia, Hungary, and Austria. It looks like they are not going to be short of candidates. Marine Le Pan and Matteo Salvini also joined the group. In The Guardian, Petr Fiala issued a withering assessment of the new group: “Let’s call a spade a spade. Patriots for Europe serves the interests of Russia, either consciously or unconsciously, and thus it threatens the security and freedom of Europe.” The Patriots’ Manifesto emphasizes its intention to “protect Europe’s Christian roots,” ensure “the strongest possible protection of Europe’s external borders,” and create a “strong competitive Europe.” The group will become the third-largest force in the European parliament and the largest-ever far-right bloc in the history of the assembly.
In other European countries, inside and outside of the EU, numerous struggles and battles of diverse forms are constantly evolving. Most widespread but somewhat restrained now have been mass demonstrations of climate activists and their supporters and student protests against atrocities in Gaza. With hotter days ahead and the West continuing to send aid and weapons to Israel, these protests are surely going to continue.
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Right to Asylum Must Be Protected in EU, Says Human Rights Coalition
"As this legislative cycle starts, the E.U. can and must do better than abandon its commitment to the global refugee protection regime," said an Amnesty campaigner.
Jul 09, 2024
Nearly 100 human rights organizations came together Tuesday to emphasize that members of the European Union "must guarantee the right to seek and enjoy asylum and uphold their commitments to the international refugee protection system."
The joint statement from groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam came as members of the European Parliament prepare for the July 16 plenary sitting, the first meeting scheduled since the bloc's June elections, which resulted in the far-right "Patriots for Europe" becoming the third-largest alliance in the legislative body.
The human rights coalition underscored obligations under Article 18 of the E.U. Charter of Fundamental Rights and expressed concern about "the recent and increasing attempts by the E.U. and its member states to evade their asylum responsibilities by outsourcing asylum processing and refugee protection risk undermining the international protection system."
As the groups detailed:
Italy, for instance, is currently seeking to process asylum applications of certain groups of asylum-seekers outside of its territory, from detention in Albania—which risks leading to prolonged, automatic detention, a denial of access to fair asylum procedures with necessary procedural guarantees, and delayed disembarkation for people rescued or intercepted at sea. Others, such as Denmark and Germany, are assessing the feasibility of this type of arrangement. Fifteen E.U. member states and some political groups have endorsed similar shortsighted measures to shift asylum processing outside E.U. territory and encouraged the European Commission to explore ways to facilitate this through further legislative reform, including through a watered-down 'safe third country' concept.
These attempts must be seen in the context of parallel containment efforts that seek to stem departures and prevent the arrival of asylum-seekers to E.U. territory through partnership agreements with third countries, with little to no attention to the human rights records of those authorities.
The coalition stressed that "as the extensive track record of human rights violations in partner countries such as Libya demonstrates, the E.U. and Member States have no adequate tools and competencies to effectively monitor or enforce human rights standards outside of E.U. territory."
A report published in November by Doctors Without Borders features stories of violence that migrants endured in nations including Libya and Tunisia while trying to get to the E.U. That publication also points out that 2023 was the deadliest year for migration in the Central Mediterranean since 2017, due in part to E.U. countries failing to assist those at risk of drowning.
In addition to sounding the alarm about current E.U. policies and practices, the coalition on Tuesday cited examples including Australia's offshore detention scheme, which "demonstrates how these models have created prolonged confinement and restricted freedom of movement, deeply harming both the mental and physical health of people seeking protection."
The organizations also pointed to an asylum scheme attempted by the United Kingdom—which left the E.U. in 2020 following the 2016 Brexit vote—and Rwanda, which the statement notes "is not yet in effect following the U.K. Supreme Court declaring it unlawful and in any event is unlikely to be operationalized at any significant scale."
The U.K.'s failed attempt to forcibly remove people to the African country was "projected to cost a staggering £1.8 million per asylum-seeker returned," which is equal to €2.13 million or $2.3 million. The coalition called such schemes "not only an unjustifiable waste of public money, but also a lost opportunity to spend it in ways that would truly aid people seeking asylum by investing in fair and humane asylum systems and the communities that welcome them."
Olivia Sundberg Diez, Amnesty's E.U. advocate on migration and asylum, said in a statement Tuesday that "attempts by states to outsource their asylum responsibilities to other countries are not new—but have long been criticized, condemned, and rejected for good reason."
"Just as the U.K.-Rwanda scheme is, rightly, collapsing, the E.U. and its member states should pay attention, stop making false promises, and wasting time and money on expensive, inhumane, and unworkable proposals," she continued. "As this legislative cycle starts, the E.U. can and must do better than abandon its commitment to the global refugee protection regime."
The meeting scheduled for next week will follow the Pact on Migration and Asylum that the European Parliament passed in April and the Council of the E.U. adopted in May. The coalition highlighted that "civil society organizations have been clear about their serious concerns" regarding the reforms while also explaining that "the transfer of asylum-seekers outside of E.U. territory for asylum processing and refugee protection is not provided for in the pact, nor within current E.U. law."
"After the E.U. and member states have spent close to a decade attempting to reform the E.U.'s asylum system, they should now focus on implementing it with a human rights-centered approach that prioritizes the right to asylum per E.U. law and fundamental principles of international refugee law to which they remain bound," the coalition concluded. "They should not, mere weeks after the reform has passed, waste further time and resources on proposals that are incompatible with European and international law."
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Humiliated French Far Right Helps 'Patriots for Europe' Become Major Parliamentary Bloc
"What do neo-Nazis, fascists, and sycophantic authoritarian bootlickers look like in the European Parliament? This," said one Irish analyst.
Jul 08, 2024
Dozens of members of French legislator Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally—which suffered a crushing defeat at the polls on Sunday—are joining forces with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to form what will be the third-largest bloc in the European Parliament.
Politico reported Monday that 30 members of Le Pen's National Rally (RN) who belonged to the far-right Identity and Democracy bloc are joining Patriots for Europe, which was formed in June by conservative lawmakers including European Parliament members (MEPs) from Orbán's ruling Fidesz party.
Jordan Bardella—the 28-year-old RN MEP who was widely believed to be the frontrunner for French prime minister before his party's thrashing in a national election on Sunday—will serve as the Patriots for Europe's leader in Strasbourg. Patriots for Europe has 84 MEPs representing 12 European Union member states.
"As patriotic forces, we are going to work together in order to retake our institutions and reorient policies to serve our nations and peoples," Bardella said in a statement Monday.
As Euronews reported:
Other national [Patriots for Europe] delegations include Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ), Spain's far-right Vox, and the Dutch nationalist PVV, each contributing six MEPs. The group also includes three lawmakers from Belgium's Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang, two from Portugal's Chega!, two from Czechia's Oath and Motorists, two from Greece's Voice of Reason, one from Latvia First party, and one from the Danish People's Party.
Renew Europe, a centrist bloc with 76 European Parliament members, reacted to the new far-right alliance in a social mediapost asserting that "Patriots for Europe are 'patriots' in name only."
"The far right have rebranded. But their mission is the same, to destroy values," Renew Europe added. "Shame on them for supporting the narratives of Europe's enemies."
Commenting on a photo of Patriots for Europe MEPs posted on social media, Irish defense and security analyst Andy Scollick said: "What do neo-Nazis, fascists, and sycophantic authoritarian bootlickers look like in the European Parliament? This."
"Nothing patriotic about them: They would see Europe under the Russian yoke if they got their way," he added. "#PatriotsforEurope = #TraitorsforEurope."
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Autocrats Worse Than Trump? Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid
Here's the question to be asking, both in the U.S. and around the world: at what point will the far right achieve a critical mass of support such that it can kick away the ladder that it used to climb to power?
Jun 23, 2024
Poland is supposed to be one of the politically sane places in Europe right now. The far-right Law and Justice Party lost national elections last year to a centrist coalition and exited power after eight long years of democratic repression. Donald Tusk, who’d previously been the president of the European Council, once again became the Polish prime minister. His government immediately set about restoring the rule of law that the Law and Justice Party had been so determined to dismantle.
Sounds good, right?
Yes, but then there’s Grzegorz Braun.
Braun is a member of a party called Konfederacja that stands just to the left of the Nazis. Think that’s an overstatement? Back in December, Braun used a fire extinguisher to put out the candles on a menorah in the Polish parliament, which had been set up to celebrate Hanukah. Just in case anyone might misinterpret the gesture—perhaps he though it was a fire risk?—Braun denounced the Jewish holiday as “satanic” and insisted that “those who take part in acts of satanic worship should be ashamed.” He also favors the criminalization of homosexuality. And he was the only Polish parliamentarian to oppose a resolution in 2022 denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Is there nothing that far-right politicians can say or do these days that disqualifies them in the minds of voters from holding public office?
And yet, despite these toxic positions, Braun was just elected to represent Poland in the European parliament. And so were five other members of his Konfederacja party, who have equally toxic views. That’s a gain of six seats over their previous showing in the 2019 elections, which had been zero. An astonishing 12 percent of Polish voters endorsed the positions of Braun and his colleagues.
Sure, in those same EU elections, Tusk’s centrist party managed to squeak by Law and Justice, which lost seven of their seats. But it was the party even further to the right that seemed to benefit.
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Swing to the Right
The big takeaway from the recent European Parliament elections was the success of far-right parties. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won over 31 percent of the vote in France, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to make the counter-intuitive decision to dissolve parliament and call new elections. Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader in Italy, also managed to increase her party’s share of support.
And the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) came in second in Germany with a big boost from the under-30 crowd, who didn’t seem to care about the various scandals involving the far-right party’s leadership. Because of the statements of party member Maximilian Krahl—he said that not all Nazi SS members were war criminals—the AfD was actually kicked out of the Identity and Democracy bloc. And then the AfD kicked Krahl out of the party, not only because of those statements but also because his close ties to Russia and China were attracting unwanted scrutiny. German voters elected him to the European parliament anyway.
Is there nothing that far-right politicians can say or do these days that disqualifies them in the minds of voters from holding public office? Each month, it seems that a new red line is crossed: anti-Semitism, extraordinary corruption, a felony conviction. What’s next, the use of germ warfare?
In the European parliament elections, the far right also took first place in Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia and tied for first in the Netherlands. Indeed, the only places that the far right didn’t do better than their last outing were Sweden, Finland, and Portugal, but even here the results weren’t exactly reassuring. The far-right Sweden Democrats remained steady at 3 seats (as did the Danish People’s Party at one seat). The Portuguese far right Chega party actually made it into the European Parliament for the first time with two seats. Only the True Finns party lost representatives and it was a drop of only one seat.
The good news is that the far-right electoral coalitions—the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR), the Identity and Democracy bloc (ID), and the unaffiliated bloc that includes Fidesz and now the AfD—didn’t win enough votes to take over the leadership of the parliament. The ECR gained 14 seats (thanks largely to Meloni in Italy), the ID gained 9 seats (thanks largely to Le Pen in France), and the now-unaffiliated AfD increased their delegation by six seats. That puts the far right at nearly one-quarter of the total number of seats.
But the center right also did well in the election, increasing their total number of seats to 190. The ECR will not be forced to form a governing coalition with the far right, and that means that the European consensus on the green energy transition will remain more-or-less intact.
The Not-So-Long March
Let’s face it: the European parliament is not the most powerful institution around. What’s important about the far right’s victories is their apparent abandonment of any desire to destroy the EU or, at least, withdraw from it. The new far-right strategy is borrowed from the left (just like some of its economic program): a “long march through the institutions” in order to control them. Bye-bye Brexit and its heir apparents: Nexit, Grexit, Frexit. The far right wants to conquer Brussels.
Meanwhile, it is continuing its long march through national institutions. In Belgium, in federal elections earlier this month, the far-right, Euroskeptical, Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang came in second, behind a right-wing, Euroskeptical, Flemish nationalist party New Flemish Alliance. Traditionally, Belgian parties have agreed not to partner with Vlaams Belang to form governments. But with the New Flemish Alliance moving ever further to the right, the Belgians might be on the verge of breaking with this informal pact. Don’t expect a new government any time soon though: it took 18 months to forge a ruling coalition five years ago.
In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party is on track to win elections in September. Its coalition government with the Christian Democratic People’s Party collapsed in 2019 because of the Ibiza affair, which linked Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the Freedom Party to a corrupt deal involving a woman he thought was a well-connected Russian. The Freedom Party’s adulterously close relationship to Russia has not seemed to diminish its popularity. Another recent spy scandal broke, involving a top intelligence official passing information to Russia in exchange for money, which took place when the Freedom Party was in charge of the Interior Ministry. And yet Austrian voters concluded that this was just the type of party to send to the European parliament.
And then there’s France. Who knows, perhaps the French far right, too, will take over after the snap elections that Macron has called. The French, it seems, now hate Paris as much as they hate Brussels (the seat of the EU). Marine Le Pen is taking advantage of an anti-elitist, anti-globalist, anti-technocrat spirit that is rebranding reactionary as merely rebellious (sound familiar?). That’s bad news for Macron, whose every gesture and remark scream “Paris elite.” Fortunately, a more genuine challenge to the French orthodoxy has emerged on the left, as the Socialist, Communist, France Unbowed, and Ecologists parties have formed a new coalition. It is currently running neck and neck with Le Pen’s National Rally.
In The Netherlands, meanwhile, the far right has finally managed to put together a coalition government after their surprise victory in elections last year. Firebrand Geert Wilders had to give up on his desire to become prime minister, but in exchange his Party for Freedom (PVV) will control five ministries.
The new head of the migration and asylum ministry, Marjolein Faber of the PVV, is perhaps the last person you’d want in charge of a sensitive issue like immigration. She favors the abolition of Islam. She has called migration “repopulation,” a popular word in the far-right lexicon that has roots in the German word umvolkung, which was used by the Nazis and which today has much the same connotation as the “replacement” of majority white populations with non-white immigrants. And she has been guilty of the worst kind of racial profiling when she said that a stabbing suspect looked like a “North African” when witnesses reported otherwise.
Be Afraid, Very Afraid
Faber, Krahl, Braun: these far-right politicians make Donald Trump look like a conservative Democrat (which he used to be before opportunism beckoned). Of course, the Eurocrazies don’t have as much power as Trump might once again have. But the really scary part is how routine it has become for such people—who, a generation ago, would have been just kooks making long-winded speeches from the audience at public forums—to now be in positions of real responsibility.
It’s also frightening because it’s not just Europe that has been affected by this peculiar political disease. Narendra Modi, despite a drop in his party’s support in the latest elections, will continue on as prime minister of India. Nayib Bukele, the telegenic autocrat in El Salvador, won a supermajority in parliament earlier this year for his New Ideas party. And Vladimir Putin, no surprise here, won his election in Russia.
Trump was blocked from doing his worst by the institutions of a democratic society (Congress, state governments, courts, conscientious objectors at all levels). The EU, after this near miss with near fascism, will also be able to prevent the far right from unraveling the rule of law.
But at what point will the far right achieve a critical mass of support such that it can kick away the ladder that it used to climb to power? The far right’s long march through the institutions has only one ultimate destination: autocracy.
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'Momentous Day for Nature': EU Adopts First-of-Its-Kind Habitat Restoration Law
One campaigner called the law’s passage a “ray of hope for Europe’s nature, future generations, and the livelihoods of rural communities.”
Jun 17, 2024
Environmental groups celebrated a "historic" victory on Monday as the European Union adopted a law that seeks to restore at least 20% of land and sea habitats by 2030 and 90% to 100% by 2050, following a narrow vote by the European Council that swung on the vote of an Austrian minister who defied conservatives in her own government.
The new law, aimed at reversing catastrophic biodiversity loss, includes a sweeping array of protections for European ecosystems, from forests to wetlands to coral reefs. It also aims to restore organic soils in agricultural ecosystems, with special provisions for grassland pollinators and farmland birds. It was described as the "first ever" E.U. law aimed at nature recovery.
"After years of intense campaigning and many ups and downs, we are jubilant that this law is now reality—this day will go down in history as a turning point for nature and society," World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) EU, one of several organizations that campaigned for the law under a #RestoreNature banner, wrote on social media.
🚨 BREAKING: We have the EU Nature Restoration Law!
Member States have just adopted the game-changing law for Europe's degraded ecosystems
It's a huge win for the EU's nature, citizens & the economy and the people behind the #RestoreNature campaign!
Thank you all 💚 pic.twitter.com/MmZPOQXzWW
— WWF EU (@WWFEU) June 17, 2024
The law's adoption came after what WWF EU called "one of the most tumultuous journeys in the history of E.U. legislation," a two-year-long saga that was dramatic up until its final moments.
The law's final hurdle was cleared by the European Council on Monday when 20 out of the 27 E.U. environment ministers, collectively representing 66% of the bloc's population—just enough to meet the 65% required by qualified majority rules—voted in favor.
The threshold was met when Leonore Gewessler, Austria's environment minister, moved in favor of the law despite opposition from the leaders of her own coalition government. Gewessler is a member of the Austria's Green party, a junior coalition partner to the conservatives, who oppose the new E.U. law.
The law was nearly adopted by the Council in March, but was derailed when Hungary withdrew support.
On Monday, Hungary, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden voted against the law; Belgium abstained. It will enter into force in all member states, each of which will now be required to develop national nature restoration plans.
I want to be like @lgewessler - the most brave Envi Minister ever! Despite facing opposition in her own country - #Austria , she decided to support #NatureRestorationLaw! 👏 We will see if it is enough, but nevertheless this act of courage moved me 💚 pic.twitter.com/Q6IRYFQU8J
— Agata Szafraniuk (@AgataSzafraniuk) June 17, 2024
The E.U. parliament had passed the law in February, following trilogue negotiations last year, after which Council passage is normally a formality. But this law was a political lightning rod that threatened normal institutional processes.
"The failure to adopt the law would not only threaten Europe's highly degraded nature but also send a negative signal about established political processes within European institutions," Špela Bandelj Ruiz, a Greenpeace campaigner, told Common Dreams.
Agribusiness groups had waged a sustained campaign against the law while it was being considered by parliament, and it was one of the targets of the many farmer protests in Europe this year. There was an "unprecedented and absurd disinformation campaign," WWF EU said.
The adoption of the law, which was part of the European Green Deal, a set of environmental laws and regulations put in place by the E.U. over the last five years, comes just before a new EU parliament swears in next month, following elections last week. The new parliament will have fewer green party representatives and more conservatives than before, as well as more members from the far-right.
The nature restoration law will be instrumental in helping the E.U. to meet its commitment under the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework signed at the 2022 U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP15), nonprofit groups and E.U. officials said.
"The European delegation will be able to go to the next COP with its head held high," Alain Maron, minister for Climate Transition, Environment, Energy, and Participatory Democracy of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, said in an E.U. statement.
COP16 will be held in October in Colombia. Greenpeace said that failure to adopt the new law would have been an "embarrassment" to the E.U.
The law comes following dire reports about the state of nature in the E.U., where more than 80% of habitats are in poor condition. "Biodiversity in the E.U. continues to decline and faces deteriorating trends from changes in land and sea use, overexploitation and unsustainable management practices, as well as water regime modification, pollution, invasive alien species, and climate change," according to a 2020 report by the European Environment Agency.
Bandelj of Greenpeace told Common Dreams that some of the language on agricultural ecosystems in the law had been watered down during negotiations; for example, some of the targets are effort-based rather than results-based, with lawmakers writing "which shall aim to" rather than using more binding language. Bandelj also expressed concern that an "emergency brake" loophole could be applied, suspending implementation of the law in the event of food security concerns.
Still, Bandelj called the law a "ray of hope for Europe's nature, future generations, and the livelihoods of rural communities."
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European Elections: Far-Right Recruits for the War Against Humanity
The rise of the far right, predictable in the absence of an organized and disruptive left, brings new troops to a battle progressives cannot afford to lose.
Jun 13, 2024
The far right won the 2024 European elections, but that was happening in the European Union even before the polls opened. The attempt to normalize the current situation by promoting the description that a “pro-European” center has withstood the electoral clash is just a mystification. The far right is not one political force, but several. More than anything, the far right is a political program, which is increasingly dominating the European Union - on migration, on climate, on general hatred.
Let's start with numbers, which are the usual way of “normalizing” mystifications.
Of the 720 members of the European Parliament, the “official” far right, the one that will still be described as extreme for a few more months, divided between ID (Identity and Democracy) and ECR (Conservatives and Reformists), elected 131 MEPs (Members of European Parliament), which would make it the third largest group in the Parliament, behind the European People's Party and the Social Democrats. However, there are at least forty more far-right MEPs in the non-aligned and other groups. These include the 15 AfD MEPs in Germany, the 10 Fidesz MEPs in Hungary and the 5 AUR MEPs in Romania.
With these numbers, the far right will effectively be the second force in the European Parliament, even if they are not all officially in the same group.
Will the Left have the courage to assume that capitalism has declared a war to the death against humanity?
The party with the most MEPs in the entire European Parliament is Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National, with 30. The third party with the most MEPs is the Fratelli d'Italia with 24. The fifth is Poland's PiS, with 20 (tied with the Italian PD and the Spanish PSOE). In Germany, the largest EU country, the far right was the second most voted party. Excluding coalitions, the far right was the most voted party in eight countries: France, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Hungary and Latvia.
As if the above information wasn't enough, there are essential questions to ask about the remaining parties. Political programs from across the political spectrum have been drawn into the black hole of far-right hatred. This is why political aberrations such as the so-called Alliance (Bündnis) Sahra Wagenknecht—a party with a racist and nationalist program that presents itself as “left”— have emerged. The German government, led by the Social Democrats (theoretically center-left) and the Greens, governs with a right-wing policy in almost every area—from the environment to migration, obviously including the slaughter in Palestine. The response in the elections put them below any of the right-wing parties: why vote for imitations when there are those who aren't ashamed of being fascists?
In France too, Macron's turn to the right didn't stop the rise of the Rassemblement National (RN), which got more than twice as many votes as the official neoliberal party. Following the call for elections, the leader of the Republicains, Nicolas Sarkozy's former party, has already declared that he would support a far-right French government led by the RN. There is no red line.
But a far-right policy is more than the number of MEPs who are admittedly far-right. It must be clear that the electoral programs of the overwhelming majority of the parties of the European People's Party, the official “winner” of the elections, are far-right, anti-migrant, nationalist, anti-worker programs, advocating a return to the past and the historical hatreds of Europeans—against women, against Muslims, against Jews, against blacks and other ethnic minorities, against the LGBTQ community. And, of course, they are science denialist programs and, consequently, climate crisis denialists, disguising their service to the big multinationals as “economic realism.”
The European Union's policy will therefore be an extreme right-wing policy, in which the neoliberal precepts will be maintained, dropping any masks. The European Union serves to keep European multinationals making profits for their shareholders and managers. And if we're honest, that's what the European Union has always done, albeit in the past with a bit of a makeover.
So what will change? The institutions will continue to use their various branches—legislative, executive, judicial, coercive and media—to guarantee the deepening of the climate crisis and ensure the collapse of humanity. However, the alliance that governs Europe has been given the green light to apply institutional violence (police and military) and spread hatred from the top, encouraging an even greater breakdown of the already fragile societies that exist in this structural crisis of capitalism.
A first test will come soon, with the return of the fiscal rules of the European semester, which means nothing more than the return of the cruel austerity we know from after the 2008 financial crisis. But the jackhammer of the climate crisis will not stop, it is a war waged by governments and companies against society and it will only get worse in the coming years. The rise of the far right, predictable in the absence of an organized and disruptive left, brings new troops to this war against humanity.
Now, when the stability of our planet and our societies is fluctuating like never before, now that even the venerable institutions of national, European and global capitalism are beginning to fall, one after the other, into the hands of fascism, will the focus of the political Left remain on institutions and a return to the pre-far right past period?
Since real politics is not simply the sum of small agglomerations of ideas, but of concrete political programs, what would be the program for the sudden appeal of a union of those on the left? We already know that there are several crises, but what is the political program that responds to the essential political issues of our time? Will the Left have the courage to assume that capitalism has declared a war to the death against humanity? Will we recognize that capitalism is actively recruiting an ever larger part of society to kill the other through far-right politics? If so, do we agree to organize ourselves to win this war?
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To Stop the Rise of the Far Right, the EU Must Tackle Economic Insecurity
The results of the European Parliament elections actually make progress more urgent than ever—and there is still a democratic majority in place to deliver it.
Jun 10, 2024
“Business as usual” cannot continue—that much is clear from the results of the European elections.
Democratic forces still have a clear majority in the European Parliament. The majority of people who came out voted for a democratic Europe. So there is no need—still less excuse—for backroom deals with any part of the far right. But the rise in support for anti-democratic, anti-worker parties demands a response.
Some politicians, panicked, will try to go even further in imitating the far right, in style and substance. Trade unions, supported by the data, are clear that this tactic will backfire. The obsessions of the far right are far from the main concerns of European citizens, whose priorities are quality jobs and ending poverty.
The E.U. must urgently press forward on a European project of hope that delivers security and safety to workers.
The Hans-Böckler-Stiftung recently conducted a survey of workers in 10 European Union member states. It found that workers who were dissatisfied with their working conditions and pay and who had little say in their job were more likely to have negative attitudes towards democracy and to be more vulnerable to right-wing narratives about “migrants.”
Parties must not normalise the far right’s talking points. Wrong in principle and self-defeating in practice, this strategy—adopted by many during the election campaign—was a failure. It would compound the error to double down on it.
Instead, these results must be the wake-up call that stops Europe sleepwalking toward disaster. All democratic parties must use their combined majority to deliver on the priorities of hard-working people. It is time to stop trying to treat the symptoms and finally address the real cause of the malaise—economic insecurity.
A Project of Hope
The E.U. must urgently press forward on a European project of hope that delivers security and safety to workers. That includes quality jobs in all occupations and regions, real improvement in pay and working conditions, enhanced public services, affordable housing, and social justice.
People want an E.U. that fights against poverty and creates quality jobs—too many lack the most basic elements of a decent life. Renewed austerity would take us in the opposite direction and add to anger in communities across Europe.
Rather than abandoning the Green Deal, we should add a lot of red to it, to ensure that the long-promised just transition becomes a genuine reality.
Uncertainty and insecurity are fuelling the “backlash” against the European Green Deal. Tackling the climate crisis is non-negotiable: There are no jobs on a dead planet. But we must make the transition to a green economy in a way that does not leave workers and their communities behind.
By 2030, around 160,000 jobs in coal could be lost across Central and Eastern Europe, with up to triple that number in the supply chain. Neither the funding nor the legislation is in place to ensure that new opportunities are available for those workers.
It is no wonder there is fear. But rather than abandoning the Green Deal, we should add a lot of red to it, to ensure that the long-promised just transition becomes a genuine reality. We need a dedicated just-transition directive that guarantees workers will benefit from new, quality, green jobs in their region the moment or before old jobs are phased out.
Public Investment
That will require increased public investment in every member state—which means the E.U. needs to have a new investment fund ready to go when the Recovery and Resilience Facility ends in 2026. The incoming European Commission, if it is sensible, will also show a high degree of flexibility over the E.U.’s new fiscal rules, to avoid a return to austerity.
Equally, bringing stability to people’s lives has nothing to do with violating human rights through migration deals with repressive regimes. It means ensuring that every individual has a secure job with an income they can rely on, with enough to provide for themselves and their families—not simply scraping by, week to week, bill to bill. It means ensuring that member states guarantee that workers can unionise and have a real say at work.
Those in power should not however take it for granted that workers’ support for Europe will continue if they do not take this opportunity to change it, delivering on the real priorities of working people.
The last commission made a positive start by recognising that the destruction of collective bargaining during austerity had supercharged insecurity, taking steps to reverse that trend through the minimum-wages directive. The platform-work directive was also a recognition of the negative consequences of growing precarity.
We now need measures of a scale and urgency that matches these election results and the challenges faced by workers. Let’s give working people back more control over their lives by ramping up their ability to bargain collectively. There should be no more public money for companies which do not act in the public interest by paying union wages and reinvesting profits to create jobs and raise productivity—instead siphoning them off in excess bonuses and dividends.
Europe will never be able to compete in the world on the basis of the lowest cost. We need an active industrial policy that shares the benefits of green growth at home and sees our reputation for high standards as a comparative advantage, rather than a drag on “competitiveness.”
Social Progress
During the election campaign, I was repeatedly asked whether results such as these would mean it would be more difficult to achieve social progress in the coming term. These results actually make progress more urgent than ever—and there is still a democratic majority in place to deliver it.
Those in power should not however take it for granted that workers’ support for Europe will continue if they do not take this opportunity to change it, delivering on the real priorities of working people. To paraphrase the former European Commission President Jacques Delors, our aim must be to ensure that—before the next European elections—the person in the street can enjoy the daily experience of a tangible social Europe.
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What’s at Stake in the 2024 European Parliament Elections?
An interview with C. J. Polychroniou.
Jun 08, 2024
Europeans go to polls this week to vote for parliament. What is at stake? Is the future of the European Union at risk on account of the surge of the far right? But is the E.U. even a democratic institution worth saving? And why is the left in crisis across Europe?
Political economist and political scientist C. J. Polychroniou tackles these questions in an interview with the French-Greek independent journalist Alexandra Boutri.
Alexandra Boutri: Elections for the European parliament are taking place this week from Thursday 6 June to Sunday 10 June. Some 373 million citizens across the 27 members of the E.U. are eligible to vote, but it remains to be seen whether the “surge” in participation in 2019 will continue in 2024. Let’s talk about participation in the world’s only transnational elections because the general impression is that Europeans do not take the European Parliament (EP) elections very seriously.
C.J. Polychroniou: Participation in E.U. elections has always been low. We saw a “surge” in participation in the 2019 EP elections in which just slightly over 50% of E.U. citizens cast a vote. And this was the highest turnout in 20 years. So, yes, it’s obvious that Europeans are not as excited about E.U. elections as they are about national elections. Votes to the European Parliament also tend to be uncorrelated to national elections in the various member states. They are really low-turnout protest votes. And the reason that Europeans do not take the EP elections seriously is because they are fully aware of the E.U.’s democratic deficit.
Unfortunately, there is much to be said about the E.U. being in essence a corporate-driven entity with power vested in an unelected and unaccountable elite.
The EP is the only directly elected E.U. body, yet its authority is extremely limited. Unlike national parliaments, it cannot initiate legislation. What it does is simply debate legislation and can pass or reject laws. It can also make some amendments. It is the European Commission that is solely responsible for planning, preparing, and proposing new European laws. Those laws are then debated and adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union which consists of one government minister from each member state (and is not to be confused with the European Council which consists of the heads of government of every E.U. country). Essentially, we are talking about a rubber-stamping exercise on the part of the EP with regard to legislation. The European Commission is the E.U.’s executive body, surrounded by some 32,000 permanent bureaucrats, but the European Council is the highest political entity of the union. The commission president is proposed by the European Council and then approved by the Parliament.
In sum, the EP is not a normal legislature and is clearly the weakest of the three main institutions of the E.U. Brussels is also the home of European lobbying. There are more than 30,000 lobbyists in town, most of whom represent the interests of corporations, and they work very closely with E.U. bureaucrats and politicians. Lobby groups are involved at all levels of lawmaking. So, unfortunately, there is much to be said about the E.U. being in essence a corporate-driven entity with power vested in an unelected and unaccountable elite. By the same token, countries like Germany, Europe’s economic and political powerhouse, have a lot to answer for. Germany has refused to “think European” with regard to E.U. reform, particularly on economic restructuring, solidarity, and social cohesion. Its policies have created a major rift between Northern and Southern Europe that is having far-reaching effects on the nature of the mission of the Union.
Alexandra Boutri: There is a general feeling however that this year’s E.U. elections are different. They matter because of the surge of far-right ideology across Europe. What’s at stake with the 2024 European Parliament elections, and why is the far right thriving across Europe?
C. J. Polychroniou: What one hears from European heads of government and E.U. enthusiasts in general is that the 2024 E.U. elections are crucial because they will have an impact on the E.U.’s response to the increase in democratic backsliding. To be sure, there is serious democratic backsliding across Europe. And I am not talking about the usual suspects like Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban. We have seen, for instance, how so-called liberal European democracies like Germany responded to people protesting Israel’s mass killings in Gaza. The German government has cracked down on pro-Palestine protests, raided the homes of activists, and banned speakers from the country. In Greece, its right-wing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis publicly boasted that his government will not tolerate university students setting encampments in support of Palestine and even took the outrageous step of trying to deport students from the U.K. and European Union member states that took part last month in a pro-Palestinian demonstration rally at Athens Law School. It is quite an irony indeed to hear European leaders urging citizens not only to cast a vote but to act “responsibly” in this year’s E.U. elections. For them, apparently, democracy exists only when citizens align their views with existing government positions on domestic and foreign affairs!
Having said that, the surge of the far right across Europe is a very serious and dangerous matter. The far right poses a threat to the survival of democracy in every country in which it happens to have a large presence. I am less concerned about its threat to the E.U. than the threat that the far-right ideology poses to the democratic development of domestic society.
The rise of the far right in Europe is driven by several factors. The first is fear of economic insecurity. There has been a fundamental shift in recent decades away from the social policies of the post-war era to a ruthless form of capitalism that exploits insecurities, produces staggering inequality, and exacerbates people’s anxieties about the future. The far right taps into people’s fears, insecurities, and grievances with promises of a return to a golden past and a restoration of “law and order.” It uses everywhere it flourishes ultra-nationalist and xenophobic language but in many, though not all, cases utilizes the context of an economic policy platform which is against austerity and open to social public spending for working-class people. The radical right-wing parties in France, Italy, and Finland, for example, are hostile to neoliberalizing reforms and E.U.-level austerity. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has managed to create the image of being a “working-class” party.
The second factor is disillusionment with the E.U. and with established policies. For many European voters, both the E.U. and mainstream political parties (center-right and center-left political parties) work directly against the interests of the common people and serve instead the interests of the few. Another factor is of course Europe’s failed migration policies, though there is no mechanical link between immigration and the surge of the far right.
Alexandra Boutri: Can you elaborate a bit on this? Because there is a widespread impression that immigration is the cause behind the surge of the far right.
C. J. Polychroniou: Immigration is having an effect on right-wing and extreme right-wing voting. That’s an undeniable fact. But the whole issue is quite complicated. It’s not a clear-cut case that immigration itself is what’s driving support (which is strongest, incidentally, among people of low income and with few educational opportunities) for the far right. For instance, some studies have shown that unskilled workers feel threatened by the presence of unskilled or low-skilled immigrants from outside of Europe simply because they feel unprotected but that “high-skilled immigration from non-European countries has a negative impact on extreme right-wing parties.” Thus, the formation of anti-immigrant sentiments may be related to the degree of economic and social integration of immigrants.
it appears that in times of economic downturn, voters turn to the right, not to the left, for solutions to their problems.
But there is an irony here. The E.U. as such has no integration policy. What it has is a strategy of migrant containment, and “integration” depends entirely on the member states, with national governments defining and applying the term differently.
Other studies have shown that certain demographic factors, such as emigration (the movement of people out of a region) may also be fueling the spread of anti-immigrant far-right parties. As young people leave the smaller towns in which they grew up for better opportunities in major cities, the regions they leave behind experience a rise in support for extreme right-wing parties due to the negative effects of local population decline and the subsequent deterioration of these regions. Sweden, not long ago dominated by the Social Democratic party, seems to provide the perfect example for the link between emigration and the surge of the far right.
Alexandra Boutri: European left-wing forces are in crisis. Why is that, especially since the socioeconomic environment in Europe is quite depressing? Shouldn’t one expect the radical left, and not the far right, to be thriving under dire economic conditions?
C. J. Polychroniou: The mainstream left is clearly in decline. By that I mean social democratic and socialist parties. That’s your mainstream left. But then the question is what do we mean by “radical left?” Do we include parties like Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain in the camp of the “radical left?” I think it would be a crude joke to do so. Some anti-systemic movements of the left are out there, but they are very small and fractured. In Greece, there are scores of radical left parties and organizations, but with few followers and yet it’s impossible to get them to agree to the formation of a United Front. You encounter the same phenomenon in many other European countries. It is a sad and disconcerting state of affairs.
The reasons for the crisis of the left are political and ideological in nature and scope, and they deserve an in-depth discussion which cannot be done here. However, I think there is a real misunderstanding on the part of the left about economic uncertainty and political preferences. Scholars who have studied the effects of economic crises on voting behavior found that it is extreme right-wing parties that tend to benefit from the effects of macroeconomic shocks. Of course, there are other variables at play when examining individual case studies where economic crises lead to political support for the extreme right, such as the nature of the political culture in place and the organizational skills of left parties and movements in existence. But, on the whole, it appears that in times of economic downturn, voters turn to the right, not to the left, for solutions to their problems.
Today this is even more understandable when the left has nothing concrete to offer to Europe’s citizens. In France, people cite inflation and security as their main concerns. And opinion polls show that the National Rally has a lead ahead of the E.U. vote. But I am not sure to what extent the left understands why it is failing to convince citizens why they should vote for it, and not the forces of reaction.
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