European elections: Far right eyes vote surge and ditches German AfD

Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party did back a Dutch “Nexit” referendum to leave the EU but now says: “I see there’s no longer support for a Nexit in the Netherlands”.

The same goes for The Finns Party, which does not actively seek a Finnish exit, or “Fixit” from the EU any more: “It is not realistic that Finland would unilaterally leave the EU” in the near future, it says.

Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson has not dropped the idea completely, and wants to remove Sweden’s EU membership from its constitution.

Marine Le Pen has never been a fan of the EU either, but she no longer talks of leaving it. She has sought to accuse its officials of “promoting Islamism and wokeism” and of seeking to scrap Europe’s borders. Her party is now led by Jordan Bardella, who is number one on the EU election list. But a former boss of the EU’s Frontex border agency, Fabrice Leggeri, is at number three.

How this patchwork of nationalist politics plays out in the European Parliament after the votes on 6-9 June is hard to predict.

But the parties on the far right are far better organised than before, as the Madrid rally showed. Even Argentina’s President Javier Milei was there.

“It’s part of a long trajectory [for the far right] to form international ties and international networks,” says Matthias Dilling.

The question is whether they have the same ambition as Giorgia Meloni.

“I want to try something that’s not easy but fascinating, to repeat in Europe what we’ve achieved in Italy,” she told Italian TV.