How the right wing grabbed center stage in Europe's 2024 elections

Elections across much of Europe this year have been marked by the rise of far-right candidates. From France in the west to Croatia in the east, voters have increasingly gravitated towards lawmakers on the right of the political spectrum.

That shift in attitudes was reflected in June's European Parliament election. Across the bloc's 27 member states, around 182 million people voted – the highest percentage turnout in 30 years – and the big winner was the center-right European People's Party, securing 188 of the 720 seats. 

The EPP once again played kingmakers and Ursula von der Leyen secured another term as Commission President, declaring  "Our freedom and sovereignty depends more than ever on our economic strength, our security depends on our ability to compete, to innovate and to produce and our social model depends on a growing economy while facing demographic change."

But while the reappointment of Von der Leyen – born in Brussels, the daughter of a pioneering Euro-civil servant – represented a certain measure of stability and continuity, the election was also notable for far-right groups strengthening their position, winning roughly 20 percent of the vote as they managed to tap into many of the electorate's concerns.

"The top issue they had in mind according to the polls were security, for good reason, and cost of living," said Manon Dufour, Executive Director at the Brussels-based think tank, Third Generation Environmentalism. "They still cared a lot about climate but this featured more as a kind of fourth or fifth priority for them across Europe," she added in an interview with CGTN.

The fallout from June's election will have a bearing in Brussels, where the EU's major institutions are based, for the next five years. But it's having an impact on domestic politics too.

Far right gains ground in several countries 

In France the right-wing National Rally won roughly 30 percent of the vote in the European elections. Declaring the result couldn't be ignored, President Emmanuel Macron triggered a snap national election.

Macron said the vote "would provide clarity" but instead France was left with a hung parliament, divided sharply and roughly equally between centrists, left-wingers and right-wingers. With vetoes inevitable, Michel Barnier lasted just three months as Prime Minister – about as long as it took Macron to install him – and Francois Bayrou is now France's fourth PM this year.

Right-wing parties saw gains across Europe this year including in Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria and Croatia. In Germany a far-right group won a state election for the first time since World War II.

Some experts say 2024's election results have been a rebuke of incumbent leaders, not just in Europe but around the world.

"This might be because the consequences of Covid, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, were too dramatic for people's pockets or for their feeling of economic security," said Pawel Zerka, Senior Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

Over half a dozen EU member states now have far-right groups within their governments. The bloc may be politically divided but, faced with war on its doorstep and a sluggish economy, there's hope that there is enough political appetite to find some common ground.