At first glance, the challenge – and damage – to Europe after Sunday’s elections appears to be under control.
The pro-European parties maintained their strength, with the European People’s Party in first place, which emerged slightly strengthened. The extreme right grew, but within the expected framework. And its fragmentation limits its functional possibilities and does not allow it to break down associations. Furthermore, the center-right, together with the Socialists and the, although weakened, Liberals and Greens, maintain an absolute majority in the new European Parliament.
But behind this -convenient- perspective, the general picture begins to darken dangerously: In the “big four”, the four largest countries and economies in Europe, the rise of the far right has had the characteristics of an invasion.
In Germany, the far-right AfD finished second, ahead of the Social Democrats. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni has reasserted her dominance and claims a leading role in developments across Europe.
In Spain, despite the centrist barriers, Vox, far-right and anti-immigrant, came in third place with 9.6%.
And in France, the historical matrix of social and political currents in Europe, Le Pen’s party crushed Macron’s Liberals. And the French president could be forced into an uncertain cohabitation with the new star of the European far right, Jordan Bardelas, after the national elections on July 7th.
Possibly, Emmanuel Macron’s high-stakes election announcement was a one-way street. However, the same does not apply to the center-right of the European Parliament, the European People’s Party. There, cohabitation with the extreme right is not – at least not yet – a one-way street.
In general, the historical responsibility at this critical turning point in Europe lies in the hands of the EPP: whether it will insist on forming a majority with the Socialists and Liberals or whether it will embrace, even if ad hoc, the extreme right.
Ursula von der Leyen’s flirtation with Georgia Meloni is not an encouraging sign. Meloni’s theory of “integration” and “democratic conversion” is a convenient theory. However, the “normalization” of the extreme right and its agenda is only the antechamber to its legitimization as an alternative government force.