I don’t have to agree on everything (nor do I agree) with the various right-wing parties in Europe, but I have to admit that the right on the Old Continent is on the offensive. An example of this could be Romania this Sunday, where the presidential elections will take place. It is almost certain that George Simion – leader of the AUR party (Alianta pentru Unirea Romanilor – translated in Polish as Union of the Unity of Romanians) will advance to the second round with a result of more than 20%. Even after the poor result of this formation in the June local elections and the result of the European Parliament elections, which was below expectations, it seemed that George Simion did not have a great chance for the second round, because the main competitors ‘from the right of the centre’, i.e. the traditional Romanian centre-right, the so-called National Liberals – PNL are the co-governing party and in the last parliamentary elections they had 25% of the votes.
However, a lot has changed in Europe and the rest of the world in the meantime. The effect of the European elections is that “EU skeptics” (“Patriots for Europe”) and Eurorealists (ECR) have become the third and fourth forces in parliament with seats in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. At the same time, the Liberals lost a whopping 42 seats in the EP, and the Greens 40 (i.e. de facto even more in percentage terms). Moreover, for the first time in history, the Conservatives have two Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.
On the same day as the European elections, i.e. June 9, parliamentary elections were held in Belgium, which were won by the conservatives, and party “No. 2” became the Flemish “EU Skeptics”. Then in Austria, the ‘libertarians’ who belong to the ‘EU skeptics’ group in the European Parliament won – which happened for the first time in history.
In turn, in the Czech Republic, in eleven of the thirteen regions, the ANO party of former Prime Minister Andrej Babis triumphed in the local elections, which also belongs to the third largest political grouping in the European Parliament, i.e. ‘EU sceptics’ (although it was once belonged to… liberals!). The sparrows in Hrad are chirping that a coalition of “EU skeptics” (ANO) and conservatives (who currently govern the ODS) could be formed after next year’s parliamentary elections in Prague.
Finally, Trump won in the US, which also put a strong wind in the sails of the European right wing. Can the Polish right wing use this in the Anno Domini 2025 presidential elections?
Source: wPolityce