The European Union elections last weekend in the 27 EU member countries have in many ways changed Europe with further international impact as the continent represents the world’s democratic leadership. Although the social democratic parties, the liberals with the greens, and the ordinary conservative parties still have the majority, the more radical, populist right-wing parties have shaken the political landscape in Europe. This is except for Scandinavia, where the liberal center and even the socialist parties did well, especially due to their clear climate change programs. Generally, Europe experiences a dramatic change in the political landscape, with the right-wingers gaining ground, using new language, and having new ideas appreciated especially by young voters. At the same time, we should note that the rightwing parties are a mixed bag of various protest and populist supporters. Also, only about half of the eligible voters cast their votes in the elections.

The French right-wing populist party, the ‘National Rally’ (RN), seems to have gained some maturity under its leader, Marine Le Pen (56), a former and possibly future candidate for president and the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the party in 1972 and was more extreme. Like the other right-wing populist parties, the ‘National Rally’ bases much of its policies on opposition to migration, reduced focus on climate change, and opposition to the EU’s growing power. The right-wingers want less multilateral cooperation, preferring to take back power to each country. The Italian rightwingers in the party called ‘Brothers of Italy’ (FdI), since October 2022 even having the PM, Giorgia Meloni (47), have taken a more compromising stand on EU cooperation and are also clearly supporting Ukraine’s defense war against 

 In Germany, the right-wing ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) seems too extreme even for the other right-wing parties, partly due to some statements concerning the SS Nazi Party during WWII, saying that not all of its members were criminals, although it was generally ruled after the war that they were. However, it is likely that many, possibly most Germans agree with AfD on that issue even if they do not sympathize with AfD; besides, it is now eighty years since WWII ended.

In France, Marine Le Pen’s party, ‘National Rally’, became the largest party with a third of the votes. President Emmanuel Macron’s party, ‘La Republique En Marche!’ received only about fifteen percent, leading the President to promptly decide for general elections to be held on 7 July. Several observers suggest that the young ‘National Rally’ leader, Jordan Bardella (29), could become the country’s next PM since the post traditionally goes to the party receiving the highest number of votes in the elections.

Yet, if that happens, he would have to serve under President Macron, whose term still lasts for another two and a half years. The current PM, Gabriel Attal (35), was appointed only in January 2024, and he is another political star on the French political sky and a likely successor to lead Macron’s party. The two young men, Messrs. Bardella and Attal, may well face each other in the next presidential elections. In Belgium, too, the right-wingers did very well in the EU elections, and PM Alexander De Croo has said he will resign because his liberal party only received about seven percent support in the EU elections. In some other countries, such as Hungary and Poland, voters have been more cautious, giving less clear support to their right-wing leaders. Furthermore, some of the right-wingers seem to want renewed cooperation with Russia despite its war in Ukraine. It is a reality that the European-Russian relations at some future stage must be normalized.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has said that she is a candidate for yet another term as EU leader even if that means including rightwingers in central roles. The more liberal European leaders, the 27 EU commissioners, one from each country, and the 720 members of the EU parliament still hold the majority of the seats in the EU. Yet, considering the popularity of the rightwingers, the EU majority must hold negotiations with the right-wingers, who will demand a fair share of influence over budgets and policies. The opinion that some national parliaments have adopted until now, namely to try to isolate the rightwing parties and politicians, can no longer be applied, but the right-wingers may also have to moderate their stands and rhetoric and become more mainstream.

The right-wingers’ opposition to the EU’s climate change policies is seen as worrying by most mainstream politicians. Today, the EU is seen as quite progressive on those issues, underlining that cooperation across borders is essential in order to reduce global warming. The right-wingers generally stress strict migration policies, and some right-wingers are openly against Muslim immigration. But strict immigration policies have generally become quite mainstream, giving focus to better integration policies. One could argue that there is a limit to how many immigrants and refugees European countries can allow in and be able to integrate. At the same time, demographic and other forecasts indicate that in a decade or more, European countries will need more imported labor.

Many times, it is argued that many newcomers to Europe are not well-educated and may also have cultural and religious attitudes that do not suit European countries well, making integration and assimilation difficult. Those issues aside, the qualifications of immigrants and newcomers should not be a main issue since the aging populations in European countries will in the future need increased numbers of workers in the care sectors, and immigrants and people from other cultures may in many ways have better values to carry out such work. Also, manual labor is not sought after by indigenous populations in Europe, and immigrants may become particularly important in those sectors. It would be important that minimum salaries are increased for all sectors, certainly irrespective of people’s backgrounds. Also, the EU should soon begin deeper debates about such issues and how to develop long-term and sustainable immigration and population policies. The current policies, which mainly are about how to keep immigrants out of Europe, are short-term, unrealistic, and unsustainable.

It is important that the old and established political parties in Europe draw lessons from the recent EU elections. The mainstream parties must change. The time is over for the political establishment in Europe to try to isolate the rightwingers, which Sweden, for example, did for a long time, but now the conservative government there has accepted support from the right-wing Swedish Democrats. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is open to cooperation with Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni and other rightwingers. President Macron in France even says that he can rule with Marine Le Pen. When the right-wingers get up to a third of the votes in elections, they can no longer just be ignored and called extremists. Yet, their policies must often be challenged, moderated, and refined. But the right-wingers may sometimes have important points, and other times not at all. Again, the political culture in the old parties in Europe must become less arrogant and stale. Democracy is always about change and about listening to others. It is in debates and cooperation that things can improve and new ways can be found.

Atle Hetland

The writer is a senior Norwegian social scientist with experience from university, diplomacy and development aid. He can be reached at atlehetland@ yahoo.com