Right-wing parties fared best in last week’s European Parliament elections, with many of the new seats expected to come at the expense of the suddenly outdated hard-line Green party and its liberal allies.
While vote counting is still ongoing in many European member states, there is already a clear idea of what the composition of the next European Parliament will be, with the influence of the radical environmental left and its allies in the Liberal Group likely to be significantly reduced.
While the conservative establishment is projected to win 14 seats, various right-wing forces are explicitly looking to gain seats at the expense of globalist parties, with France’s RN and Germany’s AfD, for example, expected to gain 17 seats. Meanwhile, the liberal “renewal” group is projected to lose 17 seats, and the Greens/European Liberal Alliance is expected to see a significant drop of 21 seats.
EU27 (European Parliament Elections), European Elections Result Predictions, 4:54 AM CEST:
seat
Centre-right EPP: 192 (+14)
Centre-Left S&D: 137 (-3)
Liberal RE: 85 (-17)
National Conservative ECR: 78 (+10)
Right wing ID: 62 (+3)
Greens/EFA: 51 (-21)
Left: 39 (+2)
Non-registrants: 76… pic.twitter.com/7GE2xiiAhF— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) June 10, 2024
Macron loses big Euro election to populist Le Pen, immediately dissolves parliament and calls general elections https://t.co/qfYuRUgOGk
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 9, 2024
It’s not hard to understand why support for hardline green policies has fallen so sharply: As energy prices have risen, interest in expensive alternative energy projects has waned, and domestic prices have skyrocketed. Voters may have intuited that cutting off reliable electricity supplies in the middle of an energy crisis was probably not a good time.
Many, if not most, people believe that protecting the environment is important, but the breakneck speed with which the Green Party is trying to push through bans on domestic gas boilers and petrol cars in Europe in favour of domestic heat pumps and electric cars is alarming. Not popular at all.
The actions of Green politicians who have actually come to power have also been widely reported across the continent, seemingly undermining confidence among voters that the Greens can govern competently.
Germany’s sudden total nuclear shutdown during the energy crisis caused by the Ukrainian war was strongly advocated by the Green energy minister as necessary and risk-free. But public “common sense” doubts about the wisdom of this policy now seem vindicated, as published documents reveal that the government was aware of the risks involved and yet went ahead with it.
Germany, the European power, and now Rising energy costs are driving rapid deindustrialization This policy of making manufacturing uncompetitive with coal-fired Eastern countries is perhaps a prime example of the rise and fall of the green movement in Europe, and nowhere is this more keenly felt than among Germany’s younger voters.
Protests against Germany’s Green Party government’s decision to permanently close nuclear power plantshttps://t.co/qUYCeF4LAx
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 16, 2023
In recent years, the environment has been the single most important issue for young German voters, and their voting patterns reflect this, with the Green Party coming in as the first choice by a significant margin. But as the weekend’s European elections settled down, we saw a dramatic shift in who’s voting for whom among the youngest age groups: the Greens lost the vote by a massive 23 percentage points, dropping from first to fourth place among 16-24 year-olds.
While center-conservatives remain popular among this age group, it’s the populists who really made a splash among young people, with the right-wing populist AfD and the left-wing populist BSW both gaining 5.5 points apiece, making the right-wing populists the second-largest party among young Germans and giving the right an overwhelming majority overall.
This outcome was well-predicted: as reported last month, a major global survey documented this shift in attitudes in Europe, with “reducing immigration” surpassing “fighting climate change” as a priority for voters in continental European countries. This headwind of public sentiment appears to have propelled the right-wing populist AfD party to second place in Germany, for example, even though the party has suffered serious internal and external problems in recent months that have seriously hurt its performance in other areas.
Professor warns Germany is becoming an ‘environmental dictatorship’ under environment ministerhttps://t.co/Io6zwfqszs
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 14, 2023
