Anti-establishment forces had major gains in the EU elections because voters are tired of parties refusing to challenge Brussels, analysts told RT, saying the results also show that migration is still a top issue.
Euroskeptic parties made considerable gains in the European Parliament elections, leaving the bloc’s establishment parties badly battered and searching for answers. Ultimately, analysts told RT, it illustrates how Europeans have run out of patience for politics as usual.
n the past, whenever the EU found itself in trouble, Brussels would always remedy the crisis by calling for more European integration, Dr. Werner Patzelt, a political science professor at the Technical University of Dresden, noted. And until now, Brussels always got its way.
Across the bloc, many people “have a feeling that there is too much integration in Europe, that there is too much government by Brussels.” This is an anti-EU feeling “that is so widely spread” which has led to the election of right-wing parties.
Before heading into the elections, Brussels and its advocates argued that the migration crisis had been largely settled and that immigration was no longer a key issue for European voters. However, the electoral success of Austria’s conservative People’s Party, led by now-deposed Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, indicates that Europeans still see mass migration as a pressing problem. The party enjoyed a victory that can be attributed to Kurz’s “strong” policies on immigration, said Patzelt.