Polls predicted a significant breakthrough for the far right in the European Parliament. Ultimately, the surge will have been “less strong” than announced at the end of the election, notes Pascal Lamy. If from “decade to decade”, the former French commissioner in charge of trade observes a “continuum” which means that “the European Parliament, compared to what it was thirty or forty years ago, is clearly more to the right and with more of the far right”, what counts in Brussels, for the former commissioner in charge of trade, “is the majority on which the commission can rely to lead Europe. » A majority that changes little: if the far right gains 10 seats compared to 2019, the European People’s Party and the social democrats retain the majority of seats.
“Populism has its limits”
If the shift to the extreme right in France is undeniable, in the Nordic countries, the situation is quite different. Finland, Sweden and Denmark have chosen to turn to social democracy. In Hungary, the conservative party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, although coming in first, did not achieve a score that matched predictions. And for good reason, Pascal Lamy explains that in countries where the extreme right is in power, it is decreasing. This is therefore a sign that “populism has its limits”. “When we are elected we become responsible, we are obliged to confront the difference between what we said and what we did. We are obliged to confront difficulties before which we must arbitrate and which are those of the exercise of political power (…) I think that this is the lesson of experience, it is when the extreme right is in power that then it retreats” he concludes.
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