European Elections: The European Parliament’s Shift to the Right

Voices were raised to block the road for the most right-wing political groups on the European chessboard. On May 9, 2024, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and Bishop Mariano Crociata, President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), had published a letter calling on people to reject the “nationalist temptation,” which seem to be the only danger threatening the EU.

On June 3, Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, admonished the voters in these terms: “It would be useful for Europeans to remember their migratory roots. [...] It is a shame that after one or two generations, a family forgets them.”

Pope Francis, in a message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, released the same day, said: “it is possible to see in the migrants of our time, as in those of every age, a living image of God’s people on their way to the eternal homeland. [...] Like the people of Israel in the time of Moses, migrants often flee from oppression, abuse, insecurity, discrimination, and lack of opportunities for development.”

And, in case voters were deaf, the President of COMECE emphasized on June 7 in La Stampa, when the vote had already begun in EU territory: “Sovereignty, populism or nationalism, all movements which consider the nation as the entity capable of deciding its destiny and its future, constitute a deception.”

The message sent by European voters was not ambiguous: in the 27 Member States of the EU, various conservative lists opposing the current direction taken by the EU sent large contingents of MEPs. According to estimates, more than 180 elected representatives from these groups must have entered European Parliament.

In France, the National Rally list “won 31.5% of the votes (30 seats),” Le Monde notes, including a good proportion of Catholics and “that of the Reconquête! 5.5% (5 seats),” the total representing close to double the presidential camp, pushing Macron to dissolve the Assembly.

“The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) made a breakthrough by obtaining more than 25% of the votes,” the same newspaper notes, winning eight points since 2019. It “is rising for the first time to first position in a national vote and is doubling the number of its MEPs,” it adds.

In Germany, the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) won 15 seats, four more than in 2019, while the German episcopate is leading a veritable witch hunt against this political group, as Crux admits.

In Spain, “the Vox party continues to progress, arriving in third with 9.6% of votes,” according to Le Monde. Likewise in the Netherlands, the Party for Freedom (PVV) “made a spectacular breakthrough (+17%) and won seven seats,” compared to only one in 2019.

The same trend can be seen in Portugal, Romania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Denmark, Hungary, and especially in Italy, where Giorgia Meloni’s party, Fratelli d’Italia, “won a significant victory with close to 29% of the votes,” multiplying its previous score by four.

These results show that the positions defended by Francis on migration themes in particular, are not experienced in the same way by EU citizens, and that Catholics are no longer very sensitive to the opinions of the hierarchy.

It is to be hoped that the disappointed prelates will console each other by considering that the most progressive societal measures, to which the current pontificate is still opposed, will meet with more resistance from the newly elected members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.