Populist Right-Wing Parties Lead Polls in Europe’s Biggest Economies

Surge in immigration and weak economic growth spark voter backlash in France, the U.K. and Germany

LONDON—For the first time, populist or far-right parties are leading the polls in the U.K., France and Germany, the latest sign of growing voter discontent in much of the continent following years of high immigration and inflation.

Far-right and anti-immigration parties have already entered government in countries such as Italy, Finland and the Netherlands. But this year marks the first time that they have been ahead in Europe’s biggest economies at the same time. That could provoke a period of political turbulence in all three countries, even if national elections are likely still a few years away.

“It’s significant. Leaders in all three countries are grappling with an ascendant far right that looks on the cusp of power unless politicians can address what’s fueling the rise, which is immigration and cost of living,” said Mujtaba Rahman, head of Europe for risk consulting firm Eurasia.

France’s anti-immigration National Rally has had a consistent lead in polls this year. An Elabe poll last month showed Jordan Bardella, the young protégé of the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, was the most popular with an approval rating of 36%. Polling for the next presidential vote also suggests National Rally’s candidate—whether it is Bardella or Le Pen—would lead the first round.

In the U.K., the anti-immigration Reform UK, led by the former Brexiteer Nigel Farage, has surged in the past six months and is now comfortably ahead in opinion polls of the ruling Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives, the political duopoly that has dominated British politics for the past century.

Populist Right-Wing Parties Lead Polls in Europe’s Biggest Economies

Populist, Freedom Loving Parties Lead Polls in Europe’s Biggest Economies

There, fixed it.

By far right, they mean Nazi. Except Nazis sought to kill the world and resettle it with Germans, killed maybe 40m, both in cold blood and from famine and disease. Whereas the people slandered as Nazis merely want to, at worst, expel the illegal aliens recently admitted against their vehement opposition.

Misleading (forget the “right wing” garbage). Most of Europe has proportional representation, not single-member-district/winner-take-all. So it doesn’t matter if parties are “leading” if they are pluralities. We and the Euros need real solid MAJORITIES to govern.

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