“The very soul of Europe is at risk,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned fellow European centre-left politicians who had gathered in Rome ahead of a difficult EU election campaign.
At stake was how to halt the seemingly unstoppable rise of right-wing and far-right parties in the European Parliament vote, which starts on Thursday in the Netherlands and continues across all 27 EU member states until Sunday.
Only four EU member states have centre-left or left-wing parties in government and recent performances at the ballot box have been poor. The omens for the coming days are not good.
The European left is in “bad health”, says Prof Marc Lazar of Sciences Po in Paris and Rome’s Luiss University, the result of a steady decline that began in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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In only four countries are the Socialists and Democrats projected to come out on top - in Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and Malta. Even then, Denmark’s Social Democrats under Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen are geared up for a big drop in support.
Hers is one of only four out of 27 member states with centre-left or left-wing parties at the helm.Spain, Germany, and Malta are the others.
The populist right is quite happy to talk about “kitchen-table” issues.
The problem is that they usually don’t offer real solutions, preferring to says stuff like “immigrants are going to steal your kitchen table, and only I can stop them! Vote for me! Ein Reich Ein volk Ein gott!”
They might truly only care about corporations, but they lie very well.