Dark clouds over Europe with a few sunny patches

We are publishing here a transcript of an interview with Éric Toussaint by journalist and publisher Mario Hernandez for the radio programme “Metropolis”, broadcast on June 13, 2024 on Radio del Pueblo (People’s Radio), AM 830, in the city of Buenos Aires.

Mario Hernandez : This is an analysis of the elections for the European Parliament, where far-right forces have made headway, particularly in the Netherlands, Austria and above all in France with Marine Le Pen’s victory, which led President Macron to call early elections.

In terms of results, it’s clear that there’s been a shift to the right that’s becoming increasingly pronounced

Éric Toussaint : Elections were held from June 6 to 9, 2024 in 27 EU countries, but with a very low turnout of less than 50% of voters.

In terms of the results, it’s clear that there’s been a shift to the right that’s becoming increasingly pronounced.

The so-called centrist right, for example Macron’s party and others like the Flemish Liberal Party (Open VLD) in Belgium, which had the post of Prime Minister, has fallen sharply. It was the more conservative, even right-wing or far-right, neo-fascist sectors that managed to increase their votes.

The Greens also lost, with a few honourable exceptions in the Nordic countries, due to their rightward orientation. Because of their support, in national and European parliaments, for the right, for NATO, for abandoning the fight against the climate and ecological crisis. They have lost support because of the disenchantment of their electoral base.

On the left, the Socialists lost, but not by much, except in Germany. Nor did the radical left. The radical left, which includes some CPs, the PTB in Belgium, Podemos in Spain, France Insoumise and the Left Bloc in Portugal, gained two seats.

Those who lost are the so-called center-right. The Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, resigned the same evening when the results were known, and Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called new elections.

Mario Hernandez : Which right-wing forces won?

Éric Toussaint : In Belgium, for example, there are two radical right-wing forces that have gained strength in the Flemish part of the country. The N-VA, a party with very right-wing positions on immigration and an economic and social program that supports Flemish bosses, is anti-worker and anti-public services. The other, even more extreme, is Vlaams Belang. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s party has made strong gains. So have Marine Le Pen’s party in France and the AFD in Germany.

Mario Hernandez : What does this mean, and what’s going to happen?

Éric Toussaint : The two groups that dominate the European Parliament, the Spanish PP and its partners, Angela Merkel’s German CDU-CSU and Ursula von der Leyen in alliance with the Socialist Group, which is the second largest group of MEPs, will tend to seek alliances with the “reasonable” far right, according to the European People’s Party, of the Giorgia Meloni type. A far right that is pro-NATO, pro-budgetary austerity, pro-privatisation, and hard on immigration, which is the policy of the European Commission.

The far right is therefore beginning to be integrated into the EU’s system of governance. The same is true of national governments. The prime example is Meloni in Italy, but he’s not the only one.

To find out more about EU developments : The Drums of War are Banging in Europe and For a Europe of the peoples against the EU fortress of capitalism

Mario Hernandez : I’d like you to dwell on the analysis of the French elections. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National list won there, and Macron called for early legislative elections.

In several countries, the radical left, considered anti-capitalist, has had some success.

Éric Toussaint : I’d like to add something first. It’s not just right-wing and far-right conservatives who have had success. In several countries, the radical left, considered anti-capitalist, has had some success.

In Belgium, the PTB, which emerged from Maoism-Stalinism but broke away from it 20 years ago, has achieved excellent results. In the Flemish part of the country, it doubled its vote to 8%. In the French-speaking region (Wallonia), it obtained 12% and in Brussels, it obtained 21%. There, it tied with the Socialist Party.

Another anti-capitalist list, the anti-capitalist Left, obtained around 2.5% in Wallonia. It was a bit exceptional, but not that much, because in the Nordic countries of Finland, Sweden and Denmark, it wasn’t the far right that gained strength, but the traditional left, the Radicals and the Greens.

I’ll end with the example of Italy. The Green and Left Alliance is a list that nobody thought would get a good result, but it achieved 6.6%. It was led by Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old teacher imprisoned in Hungary for allegedly beating and wounding a Hungarian neo-fascist three years ago. She was elected as an MEP, forcing far-right President Victor Orban to release her.
Another MEP on the same list is a mayor who was threatened with imprisonment by Salvini for welcoming a boatload of migrants. Salvini was prime minister of Italy in 2019 and banned Italian ports from accepting refugee boats. It’s another interesting example of how all is not doom and gloom in Europe.

Mario Hernandez : Your explanation is very important because the information we received from Argentina was all about the triumph of the far right. We’ve got three minutes left, so let’s talk about France.

Éric Toussaint : Macron lost the election, Marine Le Pen’s far right got twice as many votes. So he called for early elections on June 30, 2024. This caused an electric shock on the left, which unified under the name of the of the New Popular Front.

The whole left—the Socialists, the Communists, part of the Greens, Mélenchon’s France Insoumise and Philippe Poutou’s Trotskyist NPA—united under the NPF slogan.

A good result on 30/6 and 07/07 is not out of the question. The far right will probably win, but an NFP success is not out of the question. The struggle will be very tough until July 7. Social movements are mobilising.

Mario Hernandez : I’d also like to mention the anti-fascist mobilisations in France and Belgium.

On the evening of June 9, or in the 2 or 3 days that followed, thousands of young people assembled in the streets without seeking permission from the authorities.

Éric Toussaint : On the evening of, or in the 2 or 3 days following June 9, almost spontaneously, against the extreme right and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, thousands of young people assembled in the streets without seeking permission from the authorities. These young people know very well that the far right is totally in support of Netanyahu’s neo-fascist government. That’s why these mobilisations are so positive, and in the United States as well as in Europe, several universities are occupied by students demanding a boycott of Israel and the breaking of financial or academic collaboration contracts with Israeli Zionist universities.

Furthermore, we need to invest energy on an international scale to bring about the global anti-fascist conference that was scheduled to take place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in May 2024, but which has had to be postponed due to the tragedy caused by catastrophic flooding. Let’s hope it can be held in Porto Alegre in May 2025, and that in the meantime, continental initiatives can be implemented, such as a major continental meeting in Europe.

Author

Eric Toussaint

is a historian and political scientist who completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Paris VIII and Liège, is the spokesperson of the CADTM International, and sits on the Scientific Council of ATTAC France.
He is the author of Greece 2015: there was an alternative. London: Resistance Books / IIRE / CADTM, 2020 , Debt System (Haymarket books, Chicago, 2019), Bankocracy (2015); The Life and Crimes of an Exemplary Man (2014); Glance in the Rear View Mirror. Neoliberal Ideology From its Origins to the Present, Haymarket books, Chicago, 2012, etc.
See his bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89ric_Toussaint
He co-authored World debt figures 2015 with Pierre Gottiniaux, Daniel Munevar and Antonio Sanabria (2015); and with Damien Millet Debt, the IMF, and the World Bank: Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers, Monthly Review Books, New York, 2010. He was the scientific coordinator of the Greek Truth Commission on Public Debt from April 2015 to November 2015.