BRUSSELS — For decades, the European Union – which has its roots in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy – confined nationalism More to the right to the political margins.
With a showing strong in Sunday elections, extreme right forces could now influence or block joint policies at EU level about migrationsecurity and climate change.
Senior EU party officials and calculation experts met on Monday to determine what kind of groups and alliances could form in the Parlament for the next five years. The party presidents will hold their first formal talks on Tuesday.
EU presidents and prime ministers will hold a summit on June 17 to evaluate the results. They will also discuss whether to return Ursula von der Leyen at the helm of the EU’s powerful executive branch, the European Commission.
The first session of the new parliament begins in mid-July in Strasbourg, France. Conservative pro-EU parties are expected to have the largest group. Populist or far-right forces have more seats than ever, but their views diverge on many issues.
One thing is clear: The results will delay decision-making and passage of legislation on issues ranging from climate change to agricultural subsidies.
The two world wars and the Holocaust began in Europe, and the EU was created to prevent such horrors. The long-time enemies agreed to open trade and borders and even share their currency, sacrificing some of their sovereignty to ensure stability after centuries of conflict.
The EU single market has helped keep Europe competitive in a globalized economy. Their collective economic weight means that their sanctions affect: one of the reasons why Russia Vladimir Putin benefits from divisions within the bloc.
The EU’s restrictions on carbon emissions have set a global example, as have its data privacy protections and big tech regulations. All of these measures required the consensus of 27 diverse countries and the approval of the European Parliament.
Meanwhile, democratic institutions and values have faced growing threats in several EU countries, from political violence in Germany, Slovakia and Denmark, to Hungary repression against free media and mistreatment of immigrants throughout the bloc.
The EU has supported Ukraine since The Russian invasion of 2022, and many in Europe see the war as an existential threat. Five EU countries border Russia.
The EU has provided billions of euros in financial and military resources. help ukraine and put it in a path to EU membershipwhile imposing round after round of sanctions on Russian officials and companies and their energy sector.
There is no imminent threat to support for Ukraine, but the election results could complicate discussions about Ukraine.
Nationalist parties from the European conservative and reformist camp, which include Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni— back Ukraine.
Those of the Identity and Democracy group, which includes the French government Marina Le PenThey are friendlier to Russia, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains Putin’s closest ally in the EU.
That divide over Ukraine highlights a fundamental challenge for far-right forces in Europe: their focus on national interests makes it difficult to work together at the European level.
Parties on the right of the political spectrum are in three different groups: the populist ECR; the ID group, home to the most typical far-right factions; and a large set of non-aligned parties. Provisional results give these three groups at least 130 seats out of the total of 720.
Their impact on decision-making in parliament and their ability to influence legislation and the appointment of senior EU officials will depend on whether they can put aside differences and how they could work together.
Alternative for Germany was recently expelled from ID after its leader Maximilian Krah said that not all Nazi SS men “were necessarily criminals.”
Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz, does not have a group at the moment; It remains to be seen where Orban will get support from him.
Analysts expect that the overall goal of far-right forces will be to further normalize their nationalist and anti-immigrant thinking inside and outside parliament.
The big surprise came in Paris, where french president Emmanuel Macron announced early legislative elections after her pro-business moderates suffered a crushing defeat to Le Pen’s far-right party in the EU vote.
Macron said he could not ignore the new political reality after his pro-European party was projected to get less than half the support of Le Pen’s National Rally.
He hopes that voters will unite to contain the extreme right in the national elections as they did not do in the European ones.
But Sunday’s decision to dissolve parliament and send voters who have just expressed their discontent with Macron’s policies to the polls it was risky – could result in the French far-right leading a government for the first time since World War II.
Macron, who has three years left in his second and final presidential term, would then have to find a way to work with a prime minister from a party deeply opposed to most of his policies.
The elections will be held in two rounds, on June 30 and July 7.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
