As the polling day approaches, centre-left, liberal and Green parties have sought to energise their own voters, arguing that their votes will stand as a roadblock to the far-right.
They have vowed to oppose any coalition government that includes extremist parties in the EU parliament and regularly denounce mainstream conservatives who suggest they might face off against the likes of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally party, which is a big lead behind President Emmanuel Macron’s liberal coalition.
“The problem is that the traditional right is not confronting the far right,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in an interview after speaking at the Economic Circle conference in Barcelona, where I spoke. “I fear that anti-European forces, parts of the far right, will hold the key.”
Still, Sanchez, a Socialist, expressed hope that a strong enough victory for centre-left parties could revive their longstanding alliance against right-wing forces.
At a rally in the Nou Barris district last weekend, Javier Lopez, a Socialist member of the European Parliament seeking re-election, was sharp in his criticism of the right-wing threat. “For 70 years, it meant that Europe was built on cooperation between the centre-left, centre-right and liberals,” Lopez told me. “This is the first time we’re seeing cooperation between the centre-right and the far right.”
While many mainstream European conservatives would prefer to continue working with moderate parties on the left, Ursula von der Leyen, seeking a second term as European Commission president, has alarmed liberals and the center-left by welcoming the backing of Meloni, whose party has roots in post-World War II neo-fascist movements. Von der Leyen argues that the Italian prime minister’s support for aiding Ukraine and distancing herself from the far right demonstrates her pro-European credentials.
Von der Leyen, meanwhile, said she did not want Le Pen’s support and described her party as a “puppet and agent” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. As von der Leyen seeks to split the far-right, the party is splitting itself. Le Pen broke with the far-right Alternative for Germany after one of its leaders declared that “the SS are not all criminals.”
Liberal and centre-left politicians have said they are prepared to block von der Leyen’s re-election if she works with Meloni. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, echoed the views of Europe’s political families by arguing that the new European Commission “should not be based on a majority that also requires the support of the far right.”
The center-right, center-left, liberals and Greens will almost certainly handily outnumber the far-right in the 720-seat parliament. The key questions are whether these parties can actually win a functioning majority, and whether the Greens will be asked to join a traditional centrist alliance.
European elections are an ideal venue for protest voting because many voters see the risks as low: “Voters are not that worried because voting for the far right will not affect the governance of their country,” Laurence Nardone of the French Institute of International Relations told me.
Jose Manuel Martinez, dean of business administration at Pompeu Fabra University who has written extensively about the EU, said in an interview that the far-right thrives through “micro-targeted discontent” on a range of issues from immigration and crime to various cultural issues, and that an EU vote is a “perfect tool” to get their message out at low cost.
But centre-left and liberal parties are now urging centrist voters to send their own messages against extremism.
Elections can also lead to a realignment of centre-left forces: in France, for example, Mr Macron’s big electoral margin was partly down to the performance of a dynamic candidate. Raphaël Glucksmann, 44, a writer and EU member of parliament, is revitalizing the once-fading Socialist Party, and “Glucksmania” could pull votes from the left wing of Macron’s center-right coalition and lift his party into third place.
Glucksmann, a moderate, joined other European social democrats in issuing the Paris Pledge, which pledges to “defend our principles and open societies as strongly as possible,” “build a strong wall against the far right,” “combat hatred, racism and xenophobia,” and “protect and fight for democracy, never take it for granted.”
So while the EU elections may be a culmination for the far-right, they could also spark a resurgence of the forces needed to contain it. The urgent need now is to counter its zeal for democracy and inclusion with audacity that matches it.
