He is also an aspiring polyglot and has studied Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian.
As predicted, the right wing did well in the EU elections this past weekend. In some EU member states, such as Germany and France, the incumbent political parties suffered significant losses. In Germany, CDU and AfD both came in first and second place, before any party part of the current ruling coalition in Germany. In France, RN, the political party of Le Pen won over double the votes for Renaissance, Macron’s party, causing Macron to call for early elections. This could see cohabitation in France, with Le Pen’s party ruling the French parliament while Macron remains president of France until the next presidential election in 2027. Due to the current polls, it is very likely that cohabitation will occur. RN had 33 percent of support in polls as of June 10th, and has consistently lead in polls for over a year according to Politico.
In Italy, Meloni won a decisive victory with her political party Fratelli d’Italia over the main opposition, Partito Democratico (PD). This is likely due to Italy’s continued economic recovery, as the nation continues to set records for employment (62,3 percent in April 2024) meanwhile the unemployment rate continues to decline (6,9 percent in April 2024). Italy’s unemployment rate is currently the lowest it has been in 15 years. This is in contrast to Germany, where the unemployment rate is currently increasing. There is also a lot of anger in Germany over problems caused by immigration, such as an Afghan man who arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor and stabbed five people and murdered a 29-year old police officer. Scholz is likely to resume deportations to Afghanistan for Afghani nationals who are a safety risk for Germany. Deportations to Afghanistan were temporarily paused after the Taliban took power in 2021 as there were concerns about potential consequences for them back in Afghanistan, yet Germany cannot allow its own citizens to be murdered in cold blood as a result of refusing to deport people who legitimately are a security risk such as Sulemain Ataee. Sulemain was allegedly recently radicalized, and may prefer to live in a nation under the Taliban rather than a nation where Islam is allowed to be criticized, just like any other religion.
Results in Poland
In Poland on the other hand, Donald Tusk’s party, Platforma Obywatelska (Civic Platform), remained ahead of PiS. PiS also lost power after last parliamentary election last fall. This may partially be a result of Donald Tusk’s pro-EU stance, yet commitment to fighting for Poland’s national interests as well. PiS on the other hand appeared to be constantly combative with the European Union despite a majority of Poles holding a favorable view of the European Union. This case is less clear than Italy as the government has been in power for less than a year, but voters still appear to not be content with how PiS did when it was in control. PiS gained the most votes in the parliamentary election but ultimately failed to create a ruling coalition, allowing Donald Tusk to do so. Now in the EU election, Platforma Obywatelska came in first place with a percentage point more of the votes than PiS.
Youth Vote
In the European Union, an interesting trend has been emerging, with younger voters tending to vote further right. This is contrary to what has been taught in political science courses, with younger voters tending to vote further left than their parents. On the other hand, Konfederacja came in third place with 12 percent in Poland, thanks to young voters. It received 31 percent of the votes from young voters. The party was formed as a coalition from smaller parties in 2019. That year, the party made controversial comments such as creating “a Poland without Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes and the European Union.” The political party has partially gained popularity for its unique campaign strategy. Rather than make long political speeches to win over voters, leader of the party, Slawomir Mentzen prefers to host events such as “Beer with Mentzen”. As the party refuses to build coalitions with traditional political parties, it is unlikely to gain any significant power, unless it were to win an outright majority alone. For now, this seems impossible, but it is still important to remember to never say never as it is unclear what the future may hold. For the time being,
In Italy however, this was not the case. Partito Democratico came in first place with 18 percent of the vote from voters 18-29 years old while Fratelli d’Italia only received 14 percent and came in fourth place. It is important to remember though that younger voters have been abstaining at higher rates than older voters in EU elections, making it difficult to know what would happen if more people participated in the elections and cast ballots.
Conclusion
The European Union elections tend to always have a lower turnout rate than national elections, yet the current governments in Italy and Poland saw electoral success. For both governments this serves as a sign of approval from voters, while voters in France and Germany make sure to demonstrate their displeasure with their current governments. As young voters in particular are voting further right, national governments must work to convince younger voters that the traditional parties in fact can lead their nations into the future. If not, traditional parties may continue to lose support in future elections. Voters care about results and while Italy has seen an improved economy in the first two years of Meloni’s government, this has not necessarily been the case for France and Germany with their current governments. For France it may be too late to turn things around before the next election, however, as German Chancellor Scholz has not followed French President Macron and did not call for snap election, Germany may be able to turn things around.
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