Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Jimmie Akesson in Sweden or Rikka Purra in Finland: nationalist positions are gaining strength on the Old Continent, a current issue less than five months before the European Parliament elections, which will focus on 720 seats in the new legislative period.
The attack on immigration and Islam, sovereign positions towards the European Union (EU) and questions on climate change are some banners of the extreme right, themes that are being raised on the French stage by the multiple presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, National Group (RN) convenient way to voters.
While the heiress of Jean-Marie Le Pen (her father) defended a referendum on France's exit from the EU before the 2017 elections, she did not mention it in her 2022 program loaded with a good dose of social issues.
The representative demonstrates the ability to avoid unnecessary controversy and has long distanced herself from positions that criticized her father, a strategy that undoubtedly works.
Not only is Le Pen among the most popular figures on French soil in the polls, the young president of RN, Jordan Bardella (28 years old), is also on the podium, who will head the organization's list for the European elections on June 9 .
The 55-year-old politician, who was confirmed as a candidate by her party in December, already announced that Bardella would receive the appointment as prime minister if she reaches the Elysée Palace in the 2027 presidential election, which would be her fourth attempt.
This weekend, a poll by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) for the weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche showed Le Pen at the top of a hypothetical election scheduled for next Sunday, although the appointment to elect the leader of the Der State remains distant in time.
According to the investigation, the native of Neuilly-sur-Seine would easily defeat the main pro-government candidates, the newly appointed Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and the former holder of that office and current mayor of Le Havre, Édouard Philippe.
In a possible duel between Le Pen and Attal, the RN representative would dominate with 32 to 23 percent, while with Le Pen-Philippe she would win with 33 to 25.
French President Emmanuel Macron defeated them in the second round in 2017 and 2022, appealing for a so-called “republican front” to prevent the far right from coming to power, as has happened in other European countries.
The poll also assessed the Bardella variant as the RN candidate, and in both cases the ruling party would also go through the narrow door, Philippe would concede by 27-26 and Attal by 28-24.
The MEP himself heads the list for the European elections, in which the far-right party has the advantage in terms of voting intentions, according to the Elabe poll published on Saturday by the BFM television channel.
RN received 28.5 percent support, higher than the 23.3 percent with which it dominated the European Parliament elections in 2019, with a 10-point lead over the ruling Renacimiento with its allies Democratic Movement and Horizons.
The nationalist political force led the way among voters under 35 with 31 percent and among voters between 35 and 64 with 32 percent.
For the environmentalist Marie Toussaint, leader of the list of this current, it is urgent to act in defense of peace to stop “the burn” of the extreme right on the Old Continent.
It is a progressive disease that promotes selfishness and attacks the fight against climate change, is at odds with human rights and threatens the European project, he told Franceinfo.
The European elections will be a measure of the extent of the phenomenon, as it is predicted that the two groups representing the most radical and reactionary positions in the European Parliament will win a significant number of seats: the European conservatives and reformists and Identity and Democracy .
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