Far-right parties rattled the traditional powers in the European Union and made major gains in parliamentary elections Sunday, dealing an especially humiliating defeat to French President Emmanuel Macron.

On a night where the 27-member bloc palpably shifted to the rightItalian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni more than doubled her seats in the EU parliament. And even if the Alternative for Germany extreme right party was hounded by scandal involving candidates, it still rallied enough seats to sweep past the slumping Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Sensing a threat from the far right, the Christian Democrats of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had already shifted further to the right on migration and climate ahead of the elections — and were rewarded by remaining by far the biggest group in the 720-seat European Parliament and de facto brokers of the ever expanding powers of the legislature.

  • Kaboom@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    Isnt it that a lot of people are single issue voters, caring solely about reducing immigration, and only the far right will even consider it?

    • FluffyPotato@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      It’s also that the liberal parties have done fuck all for people and the left parties are basically non-existent, like I have noticed the far right parties are also promising to do something for housing. Thankfully my country has a functional left enough party I can vote for but France and Germany are pretty cooked.

    • starchylemming@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      yeah. reducing immigration is literally the only thing a huge part of the population cares about and no amount of shittalking them will change that.

      • Madison420@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        The similarities between all the world wars are both hilarious and terrifying. Literally every single one includes people not being able to afford to live, a rise in nationalism, fear of immigration, and people seeking a charismatic strong men personality.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          None of those are among the most important causes of the First World War.

            • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              No, he’s describing the second. The first was when the old entrenched powers like the British Empire, the German Empire, the Russian Tzar, the Ottomans etc got into a big kerfluffle after an archduke from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated and everyone’s big alliance rings got triggered.

              It was a war between strong empires that had been entrenched over centuries trying to play big power politics basically.

              The second was about nationalism and strongmen. The first already had a bunch of strongmen and huge empires jockeying for position, and it was more about weakening perceived rivals. After it ended, many people wanted to return to that sort of status quo, which helped fuel nationalism and the rise of strongmen in the interwar years.

              • Madison420@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                The assassin of Franz Ferdinand was literally a Bosnian nationalist immigrant in Austrian controlled Bosnia convinced by economically displaced serbians to kill the archduke of Austria.

                Nationalism ✓

                Flailing economy ✓ the ottoman empire would quite literally not last the war.

                Rise of a charismatic strongman ✓ dude literally joined an ultra nationalist group led by a planted charismatic strongman.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  The assassin of Franz Ferdinand was not an immigrant. He was born and lived in Bosnia, and he killed Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. There was no “fear of immigrants”.

                  He was not inspired by a “strongman”. He was a member of Young Bosnia, a group of socialist/anarchist students with no political power.

                  Similar groups had existed for decades, there was no “rise” in nationalism.

                  The Ottomans did not industrialize with the rest of Europe, this meant they were still agrarian in the 20th century not that they were “unable to afford to live”.

                  The Ottoman Empire lasted through the war. It was abolished in 1922, four years after the war ended. Thus, it outlived Austria-Hungary.

                  The dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, like that of Austria-Hungary, was not a cause of the war. It was a result of losing the war.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Prior to the First World War, the standard of living in Europe was rising due to industrialization and immigration was not a particular concern.

              In Germany, the left had just retaken control of parliament and the leader was actively trying to use diplomacy to preserve the balance of power. Unfortunately his efforts had the unintended consequence of igniting a war.

              For the actual causes of the First World War, see the other reply.

              • Madison420@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                The same is true now and the same was true for WW2, perception of reality is much different than reality. Your not making the point your thinking you are, we’ve literally never lived in a safer world and you’d think that aren’t true given the far rights screeching about jobs and crime.

                Correct, the right wasn’t happy about that weren’t they? Similarly Germany WW1 and Germany ww2 are quite literally the poster children of far right nationalism given that their sole reason for entering the war was to rid themselves of their neighbors and gain territory.

                Unintended? All these people were writing letters to each other pantomiming their intentions, like 90% were family Members and the rest might as well have been.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  Perception is much different from reality. It’s true, but not how you think. You are perceiving, or at least trying to portray, the causes of WW2 as similar to WW1. But in reality they can’t be shoehorned into your framework.

                  Again, the left, not the right, was ascendant in that period. The left was in control of the German and French parliaments. The left was on its way to overthrow the government of Russia. After the assassination of a leftist leader, the Second International, a leftist organization, made pro-war statements. This was immediately followed by the entry of France and other countries into the war. The right as we know it did not exist yet.

                  Immigration was not a major concern in Europe in the period before WW1. People were not immigrating to Europe. If anything, they were emigrating from Europe to America.

                  Germany and other countries were not scheming to gain territory. The geopolitics of the time were aimed at containment, not expansion. The goal was to preserve the balance of power. This was supposed to be achieved by a network of alliances that would deter war. If you must draw an analogy, the politics of the time were far closer to the nuclear detente in the 1970s between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

                  Finally, Germany entered the war because they were obligated by treaty, just as America would have been dragged into a war if someone had invaded Portugal in 1970. Kaiser Wilhelm was notoriously uninterested in military affairs, and he realized almost immediately that war would be pointless. Hence his lack of involvement in Germany’s war effort, earning him the nickname “Shadow Kaiser”.