Between June 6th and 9th, 27 member states held elections for the European Union’s parliament with over 300 million eligible voters. However only 51% voted, an unsurprising figure as democratic participation declines across the West. Equally unsurprising were the results of the vote, which, as always, resulted in the two major centrist blocs, the European People’s Party and the Socialists and Democrats, maintaining their majority, with some support from the Green and Liberal groups.

However, far-right and nationalist parties performed very well, with the two major groupings gaining seats and nearly 20% of all MEPs. This outcome was predicted in the pre-election polls and hasn’t shocked many pundits, but thereality of an increased normalisation of nationalist politics in the European Parliament may be sobering for some.

For 20 years now, nationalist and far/extreme right parties have slowly but surely gained electoral and political legitimacy. In recent years, such parties have won elections in the Netherlands, Italy, and Slovakia, and they sit in government in Finland, Sweden, and a few other countries as well. In all member states, nationalist parties sit in parliament, and their rhetoric has entered mainstream political discourses.

In France, this outcome has had especially profound repercussions, as President Macron has now called for snap elections in response to the major losses experienced by his Renaissance party to Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s National Rally party.

How did Europe, and indeed many other countries in the democratic world, come to this? Are mainstream politicians getting it wrong, or are they just of poor quality? Is there a better way forward? To answer these and many other such questions, Ilana Bet-El is joined by Catherine Fieschi, an expert on populism and European politics, in a lively and deeply probing conversation.

This episode was recorded on June 13 2024.

Notes

• Catherine’s inspiration: “Homage to Catalonia” George Orwell
• Catherine’s book “Populocracy"
• Global social media users (April 2024): 5.07 billion, equating to 62.6% of global population. Meta had by far the most users (Facebook 3 billion, WhatsApp and Instagram 2 billion each) with Youtube, owned by Google, next at 2.5 billion.
• Catherine Fieschi Linkedin & Twitter/X
• Our Instagram
• Our partner ELN Twitter, LinkedIn & website
• Ilana Bet-El

Credits

• Production: Florence Ferrando
• Music: Let Good Times Roll
• Supported by a grant from the Foundation Open Society Institute in cooperation with the Open Society Foundations

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