Georgy Kutyrev's comment on the results of the European Parliament elections

Georgy Kutyrev, a researcher at the International Laboratory for Research on World Order and New Regionalism at the Higher School of Economics, commented on the elections to the European Parliament (EP) for Independent Public Monitoring (NOM) on June 6-9.

According to preliminary data, the majority in the European Parliament is still retained by the European People's Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) - they hold 191 and 135 seats, respectively. This means that the center of the EP in political and ideological terms as a whole can remain stable if the EPR and S&D form a grand coalition. "The Greens, the European Free Alliance (Greens - EFA) and The European Left, which have 53 and 35 seats, can join that coalition to form an alternative to the far-right Identity and Democracy (IID) and moderate eurosceptics of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). The latter, as numerous exit polls suggested, have significantly improved their positions. This means that the "far–right turn" in the EU has begun," the expert states.

At the same time, the rise in popularity of right-wing populist parties did not begin yesterday. "The conditional starting point for this process is considered to be 1984, when in France, following the results of the elections to the European Parliament, the National Front sensationally received 11%. Over the next three decades, populist parties have significantly strengthened their position in the party and political systems of European countries. The success of the far-right in the current elections to the European Parliament is explained by the emergence in society of a demand for populist parties against the background of increasing discontent with traditional political forces (socialists and populists), the activities of the legislative and executive authorities (democratic deficit), as well as the growing concern of voters regarding the immigration problem (another wave of migration arose after the start of the SMO)," explains G. Kutyrev.

The rest of the comments can be found at the link.