“Our Turn”: Why Does Europe’s Youth Turn to the Right?

The European Conservative ^ | May 30, 2024 | Tamás Orbán

[posterchild]

Wherever you look, establishment parties are in panic mode throughout Europe. The centrist old parties may still be in charge but their appeal is waning day by day. Polls show that more radical outfits on both sides of the political spectrum are beneficiaries of this silent rebellion. In particular, the surge of national conservative parties seems more pronounced and, at the same time, much more worrying for the mainstream.

The haphazard efforts of the ruling class to keep the Right under control, in turn, only accelerate the ongoing right-wing surge. One important reason for this self-fulfilling prophecy is that the right-wing populist vote is often driven by the Gen Z youth, while the hallmark progressivism of millennials is turning middle-aged with them.

In Germany, the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is the most popular party among people under 30, with an impressive 22%. Similarly, a third of the French 18-to-25-year-olds support Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN)—with none of the established parties able to break double digits among them—while nearly half of the youngest cohort is expected to cast their ballots for one of the two national conservative parties in Italy (Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia or Slavini’s Lega).

[IYAS9YAS]

Centrist parties? Nothing in Europe is centrist. Central-government collectivist, maybe, but not centrist.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Fake news.

[TexasFreeper2009]

I actually believe it, the young blame the covid response on liberals. It ruined their high school and college experiences