The Kids Are Alt-Right: Europe’s Youth Defy Conventional Trends by Embracing Nationalism
Elections to the European Parliament saw far-right, nationalist parties gain ground across the continent, with the bulk of their support coming from younger voters.
Following a series of elections held over 27 European Union member states, the tectonic plates of Europe’s politics shifted irreversibly. Across the continent, traditional establishment parties saw their support further eroded as populist parties on the right gained ground at their expense. In Germany, all members of the ruling three-way government coalition experienced historic losses. The Greens saw their support roughly halved, the SPD recorded their worst electoral result in their 120-year history and the FDP stagnated at around 5%, almost below the national threshold necessary for political representation. The mood was just as bleak in neighbouring France where the liberal Renaissance party declined by seven points, trailing far behind Le Pen’s National Rally, which secured double the support of Macron’s party with around 32% of the vote share. Similar trends were observed in Austria, Italy and Hungary.
While the traditional coalition between the centre-right EPP, centre-left S&D and liberal RE is projected to retain its majority in the European Parliament, they emerged from the elections bruised and significantly weakened. With environmentalist parties also losing ground, the political gravity of Brussels shifted noticeably to the right, a reality that will no doubt be reflected when European leaders convene later in the month to cobble together a new ruling coalition.
Since the introduction of new voting laws, the voting age allowed people under the age of 18 to be eligible to vote in some countries—16-year-olds in Austria, Germany, Malta, and Belgium, and 17-year-olds in Greece—there had been hope that these new voters would put a brake on the populist surge engulfing Europe. And in the 2019 European Parliament election, young voters showed great promise by turning out in record numbers, a hopeful sign that reflected their enthusiasm for the common European project. With the climate movement rocking the streets, their votes went disproportionately to green parties that championed strong climate protection and deeper EU integration—two sets of long-term interests. This prompted the EU administration to approve the European Green Deal in 2020.
As the votes trickled in late Sunday night, one trend stood above the rest. To the surprise of most pundits, the rise of the far-right was fuelled not by elderly reactionaries, as is often the case, but by younger voters. Konfederate, a far-right, libertarian party, was the most popular party amongst 18-24 voters in Poland, not the traditional left. More younger Germans voted for the AfD than the SPD or Greens, a massive departure from the results five years ago when progressive, internationalist parties seemed dominant in Europe’s largest populated country. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration, far-right Freedom Party emerged in a close second place on a campaign that tied affordable housing to restrictions on immigration — a focus that struck a chord with young voters. In Portugal, too, the far-right party Chega drew on young people’s frustrations with the housing crisis, among other quality-of-life concerns.
When analysing election results over several different countries, it is often difficult to discern a unifying trend. Any proscription sometimes feels weak or generalising. After all, the political climate of Ireland will never be comparable to Italy. However, one thing is undoubtedly clear: when the establishment fails to acknowledge voters’ concerns, let alone address them, people seek the embrace of radicals.
No cancer is more pervasive and destructive than the open-border orthodoxy espoused by the ruling liberal, technocratic elite. It diminishes cultures, destroys communities, suffocates labour markets and threatens the security and prosperity of the European people. And yet, despite most voters across the continent consistently opposing this and calling for it to be tackled, their elected representatives ignored their pleas, widening the floodgates ever further and silencing dissent.
Now, they reap what they sow.
If there’s one thing people dislike more than anything, it’s the inability to voice their opinions. Censorship is the anathema to every civilised society. For years, haughty, privileged European elites, insulated in the echo chambers of Brussels’ corridors, treated their citizens with open disdain, propagating a culture of silence and censoring anyone who disagreed with their vision for society. Any sort of dissenting opinion was shot down by politicians and the media, breeding resentment in the hearts of millions of ordinary, working-class people.
Under such conditions, people, unsurprisingly, felt powerless. So, when they’re given the opportunity to emancipate themselves from the shackles they find themselves in, they vote for change, they vote for whatever will uproot the status quo. They are not deep ideologues, most probably don't even vehemently support right-wing ideology, they just want to be heard, understood and their problems taken serious, instead of dismissed. Since that's not possible in the current political climate, they opt to burn the house down, electing self-professional arsonists to do their work for them. It doesn’t matter if the far-right is incompetent or if their inflammatory rhetoric is uncouth or if their ranks are riddled with corruption scandals, to most European voters, they represent an alternative from the destructive policies of the past. And in a world mired by stagnating economic growth, declining living standards and a feeling of despondency seeping in with most citizens, political change has never been more appealing. It’s destructive, yes, but cathartic to many.
The results are more of an indictment of the chronic weaknesses plaguing Europe’s liberal, establishment parties than a genuine enthusiasm for the ideology propagated by the far-right. While Europe’s nationalists love pairing bombastic language with inspiring optimism, Europe’s liberals are facile, incapable of effectively presenting an articulate, unifying vision for the future. Like a muscular jerk, they can only offer diatribes, verbal assurances that everything is fine and that any genuine concern stems from the disbelief of the masses.
After forty years of undisturbed rule, neoliberal parties have abjectly failed to solve the same problems across the Western world. Everything ranging from low wage growth to high house prices to low birth rates and mass immigration has worsened. In response, voters, especially the youth who are now maturing in this world, vote for the far-right. What should be fertile ground for Left-wing populists is undermined by incoherent messaging, factional infighting and a perception from most voters of being detached from the concerns from the communities they once served. The Greens, meanwhile, lost their shimmer partially because their agenda had been incorporated by the other blocs, making their unique selling point no longer a novelty. But they also suffered because many voters felt that the green agenda, while noble in its aims, had gone too far, hurting farmers, the backbone of the rural countryside, and suffocating economic growth for aspirations that seem too abstract for most voters to care about, let alone visualise.
No matter how loudly and often patronising liberal journalists demure, as Europe’s youth watch as their future is stolen away from them, many are now beginning to feel emboldened enough to flirt with radical politics. The reassuring promises offered by the nationalists are now beginning to hold sway, attracting younger voters in higher numbers. The traditional view held by Europe’s liberal commentary class, confident that demographics were shifting in their favour, that young voters would always reliably support their vision for the continent, have never looked more incorrect. If the establishment continues to dismiss voters’ concerns instead of opening up dialogue, this small blimp will grow into a bigger momentum with seismic consequences for European society over the next decade.
Note to Brussels: ignore the will of the people at your own peril.