The victory of the Right was nowhere as convincing than in France, where Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) crushed the centrist coalition of President Emmanuel Macron. Projections for the final count put them at between 14.8% and 15.2% in the European poll, less than half the 32%-33% tally booked by RN.
So upset was Mama's Boy Macron that he called -- very rashly, IMHO -- a snap election for the French parliament, to be held within the next 30 days. M Macron won re-election in 2022, and cannot stand in the next presidential elections due in the spring of 2027.
Analysts have long predicted that M Macron would face severe difficulties in parliament in the wake of a heavy defeat to RN in the European elections, potentially including censure motions and the collapse of the government. But if his coalition loses at the new polls, he will be an even lamer duck, and Mme Le Pen will have even more power.
M Macron has presented it as an existential choice for French voters: do you really want to be governed by the "far right|? Walt predicts he will be surprised when they answer, "Mais, si!"
France wasn't the only country whose people have finally come to their senses and voted to save their Western Christian societies... if that's possible. Although right-wing and nationalist parties have made gains, centre-right parties came out top in Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain, and made significant advances in Hungary.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided against calling an election, although his three-party coalition suffered heavy losses on the weekend. The alliance between the Social Democrats, Greens and liberals was already tricky, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine meant breaking economic and energy ties with Russia and renouncing former pacifist feelings.
This alienated some core supporters, created party rifts, and overall rattled voters.
The ongoing surge in migration has also put strain on the resources of local councils.
While the government has managed to boost military spending and pivot away from cheaper Russian energy, money is tight, so voters are responding to rightist parties' promises of a quick return to peace and prosperity: The conservative CDU topped the polls with impressive 30% of the vote.The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) came second with 15.9%. That means that almost half of all German voters rejected the centre-left coalition. Herr Scholz's social democratic SPD got just 13.9% of the vote.
In Hungary, Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party won both the European and municipal elections, as expected. The even-better news for rightists is the emergence of Peter Magyar, a 43-year-old lawyer whose centre-right Tisza party replaced the old opposition. Fidesz got 44% and Tisza 30% -- that's nearly three-quarters of the vote for the Right.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni boosted her popularity by putting her name at the top of her Fratelli d'Italia party's ballot. The Brothers of Italy increased their share of the vote to 29%. Forza Italia, the party founded by late Silvio Berlusconi, won slightly more votes than the once-mighty League party, headed by Matteo Salvini. The centre-right coalition now looks good for at least another couple of years.
It appears that public opinion in the Netherlands hasn't changed much since November, when Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV), won the national election.
Although Green-Left parties secured the most seats in the European Parliament, the Freedom Party made the greatest gains, while centre-right parties had a strong showing. In a notable breakthrough the new BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) (Farmer-Citizen Movement) won two seats, becoming the first farmers political group to succeed in challenging the greenscam orthodoxy.
In Austria, Herbert Kickl, leader of the Freedom Party (FPÖ), told a crowd of cheering supporters that his party's victory in the European elections marked "a new era in politics." The irhgtist and conservative parties garnered close to 50% of the votes cast, with the FPÖ winning 25.7% and the People's Party 24.7%.
The Social Democrats got 23.3%, the Greens 10.9%, the liberal Neos 10.1%. For the FPÖ, the next step will be parliamentary elections in the autumn. Neither of the past two leaders of FPÖ, Hans Christian Strache or Jörg Haider, were able to deliver first-place for their party. But now that fears of a return to Nazism have been dispelled, the party is feeling confident of victory.
What does it all mean? In a Europe-wide elections, dominated by immigration, inflation and the breakdown of social cohesion, law and order, a wave of anti-woke, anti-liberal, anti-incumbent fever swept the field. 370 million people were eligible to vote across 27 countries, and they handed a massive payback to liberal and Green parties. Is Europe headed "back to the future"? Will the USA, or even Canada, follow? Stay tuned!
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