Millions of Europeans will go to the polls this year in a test of the right-wing movements that surged in 2024’s historic elections — and of the liberal order that so many disgruntled Europeans turned against.
Voters in Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands have shown the potency of this new populist wave. What’s behind their dramatic shift? We asked them. In more than two dozen interviews across the continent, Europeans who voted for far-right parties talked about casting their ballots in fury, in frustration, in protest, but perhaps most of all in a bid to bring change to a system they believe has failed to fulfill the contract between their democratically elected governments and the people.
They talked openly about nationalism, immigration, stagnant economies, the cost of living, housing shortages, anger at the elite and their countries’ perceived buckling to what many consider politically correct views.
Their voices offer a window into the choices Europeans may make in the year ahead. The main event will be a Feb. 23 snap federal election following the collapse of the governing coalition in Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has made tremendous gains. Voters in Italy, Poland, Norway, Ireland, Romania and the Czech Republic — all countries where populist movements are either well established or on the rise — are also expected to choose leaders on the local or national levels.
Europe is changing. These are the some of the voters who are driving that change. Excerpts from their translated interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Germany
‘A lot of people simply haven’t been heard for a long time.’
Europe’s largest economy is stagnating, afflicted by high energy prices, industrial decline and job cuts. Fierce debates over immigration have raged on for a decade and Germany’s military aid to Ukraine has grown increasingly controversial.
The Alternative for Germany, known by its German acronym AfD, has promised relief from economic woes and a harder line against immigration and support to Ukraine. The party benefited from German voters’ anger in state elections in September when it captured a record number of votes in the eastern states of Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony.
It is on track to make further gains in the Feb. 23 national election: The AfD is now polling ahead of all other parties except the Christian Democratic Union. Though it started on a primarily Euroskeptic agenda, the party radicalized over time. Today, its extreme positions, including the use of occasional Nazi-era language by its officials, have drawn the concern of German authorities: Germany’s domestic intelligence service has classified the party a “suspected” right-wing extremist organization, giving it authorization to place it under surveillance.
Helga Dörflinger
Personal development coach in Lörrach, 48
I don’t think most people vote for right-wing parties because we’re simply right-wing. In Germany, for example, it’s always so dangerous with our history of Hitler. Many people following this “right” track are really doing so as a protest: A lot of people simply haven’t been heard for a long time.
Our taxes are high, new people are coming who are not even checked. Are they good? Are they bad? What happened in their countries before? Our money is being given away elsewhere in the world, instead of us simply looking at our own infrastructure.
Everyone has the right to a free life, and not to be afraid of what the government is doing in Germany. Many people, older people, have no money to buy food and drink. If you’re given an eviction notice on an apartment now, you think, “Can I get a new apartment that I can afford?”
Tarah Wild
Kindergarten assistant in Munich, 46
I don’t like the fact that we are supposed to send our tax money for this war in Ukraine. We’re not asked whether we want this war at all.
The migration policy doesn’t work here either. They bring everyone in, supposedly because they want to help the people who are doing badly. But somehow everyone comes in and takes advantage of Germany. A lot of people just don’t want to assimilate here.
Michael Meiner
Waiter in Hof, 55
My biggest concern is actually that democracy is no longer defined in such a way that it is said to be a common good. The definition of democracy — what democracy is — is usually done by the government saying what is and isn’t possible. And anything that doesn’t fit in is then treated with contempt and people are insulted and labeled anti-democrats and right-wing radicals.
Price increases in general are exorbitant … That’s the kind of concern about the future that people have. Wages aren’t keeping up.
France
‘Nationalism is simple. It means doing something for your country.’
When President Emmanuel Macron of France announced snap elections in June, he created a rare and unforced political opening for his chief rival, Marine Le Pen. Homing in on voters’ unhappiness over immigration, which includes many people from the Muslim world, crime, and the rising cost of living, her far-right National Rally party notched a historic win in the first round of polls weeks later. A new coalition helped deny Ms. Le Pen a victory in the second round, keeping the party power out of power — for now.
The French voters who cast ballots for the National Rally have not gone anywhere, and many will still be there to vote for the party when the next presidential elections come around in 2027. While the party’s founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was openly racist and antisemitic, his daughter Marine Le Pen has tried to rebrand and mainstream the party since taking over in 2011. She still runs it on a strong nationalist, anti-immigration and tough-on-crime platform that has gathered rapid support in recent years.
Jean Denis Dendievel
Retired pre-press production manager in Signy-le-Petit, 67
Nationalism is simple. It means doing something for your country. It means we have roots. We’ve got a whole history behind us. And today, we see people trying to sweep all that under the carpet.
Today, [immigrants] are demanding certain rights, saying, “You’re asking us to conform to certain standards. We still want to live this way. Republican laws aren’t going to make us change our traditions, our way of life.”
No, I’m sorry. The Republic of France was born with these laws, these traditions and these foundations. If you don’t respect them, you’re out of the game.
Marie Mollard
Interior designer in Paris, 66
I don’t think there’s a France anymore. I want a France.
I’m all for letting [immigrants] come, but let’s give them some values. Tell them: “You’re coming to France, but sing the Marseillaise, learn to speak French.” Maybe it’s an old way of thinking … but it’s true that I don’t like to see what France has become.
A veiled woman is unbearable … What will that mean for our children’s future? No, I love a woman’s freedom too much, her independence too much. I raised my daughter to be independent, to work.
Yes, maybe the world is changing. You have to accept it. But I admit I’m having trouble.
Mathis Chantelouse
Student in Charleville-Mézières, 19
Welfare benefits should be reserved for those who work and deserve them. You have to earn them. You can’t just wait and say: I need welfare.
For me, loving France means respecting its traditions, not imposing your country’s traditions, because we have a history in France and for me, this history must endure. It must not be something that fades away.
For me, the values of France are respect, work and working like everyone else.
Austria
‘We have to think about our people first.’
Austria’s Freedom Party, known by the German acronym FPÖ and founded in the 1950s by former Nazis, has long been a presence on Austria’s political scene, having served as a junior partner in federal coalitions since at least the 1980s. In national elections in September, it garnered the largest portion of votes — 29 percent — but was sidelined when the mainstream parties initially refused to join it in forming a government. When talks between those parties failed this month, the Freedom Party was given a chance to lead a government for the first time.
The Freedom Party maintains a strident anti-immigrant position and has called for asylum seekers to be barred from receiving almost all social services and denied a pathway to Austrian citizenship. It is led by the combative Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister, who has called pandemic-era lockdowns “dictatorial,” labeled his opponents “traitors” and repeatedly praised Victor Orban’s autocratic government next door in Hungary.
Werner Wassicek
Public servant in Mattersburg, 38
There are two genders: male and female. I don’t believe there are 33 genders and I don’t think these are the important problems of our time.
Families are having a hard time … Everything is getting more expensive due to the energy crisis, rising interest rates and inflation.
And then you go home and turn on the computer and read, “How many genders should there be?” That misses the real problems.
Max Enrique Grabmayr
I.T. worker in Sankt Georgen bei Salzburg, 60
Everyone has the right to immigrate or emigrate, to choose their country — as long as they follow the rules. If they don’t follow the rules, they have no place in the country.
We really have a beautiful culture. There’s a great danger that when one population group becomes dominant, just like in nature, there’s displacement and the culture gets displaced by another culture. And that’s of course something none of us wants.
Memo Özay
Precious metals dealer in Vienna, 41
We are in Austria. We have to think about our people first and then everyone else comes.
If we continue to dance to the E.U.’s tune now, we might find ourselves in a war tomorrow that we don’t want to be in at all. Someone’s talking about maybe joining NATO. Hello, are you out of your mind?
I’m originally from Turkey. I’ve been to 20 or 30 FPÖ events in the last three months and I always wonder, “Where are all these Nazis that people talk about?” I haven’t seen a single FPÖ member who looked at me funny or said, “You don’t belong with us.”
The Netherlands
‘I have the feeling that our freedom is being taken away from us.’
In November 2023, Geert Wilders’s far-right Party for Freedom, known as the PVV, was the biggest winner in the Netherlands’ parliamentary elections, laying the groundwork for the nation’s right-wing government that formed last July. Mr. Wilders’, whose overt anti-Muslim rhetoric, among other things, has isolated him from the country’s liberal mainstream, agreed not to seek the prime ministership, but continues to lead his party in the governing coalition.
Though the scale of his party’s win came as a surprise, Mr. Wilders has been tapping into malaise among Dutch voters for decades. Some of his most notorious proposals include banning the Quran and mosques, but what helped lead his populist party to victory was misrepresenting the cause of the country’s housing shortage — falsely blaming it on immigrants.
Jeroen Van Liempt
Bar/restaurant owner in Kerkdriel, 38
Our own people must come first. I see that as an entrepreneur, but I also see that as a father of two small children.
I hope it will become possible for a new generation to participate in the housing market again. It’s not easy today to buy a starter home in the Netherlands. It’s not easy with two salaries to buy a house. Yet our City Hall has settled many migrant workers here, and there is housing for them.
I really have nothing against Islam or against certain cultures. Absolutely not — everyone is equal with me. But whether the family comes from Syria or from Ukraine, at some point the Netherlands will be full, and then we can’t continue. It cannot go on like this.
Dorothé Verhoeven
Retired palliative caregiver in Kerkdriel, 67
Refugees are very welcome, even from other countries. But they think this is the land of plenty — that you come in and you get money and shelter, while our children can’t find a house anymore.
A feeling of revolt among the people is becoming more and more an open topic. I have the feeling that our freedom is being taken away from us.
Hermina Meerts
Quality controller in Sint Willebrord, 37
The economy is of course going in a very wrong way. The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. I think there is a gap between the Dutch that needs to be eliminated. The PVV is going to make a good contribution to that, I hope.
I work pretty hard. And I see that if you actually work in the Netherlands, you are kind of punished. What you actually see is that the people who work less have more money left over than the hardworking people.
With reporting by Holly Young in Germany, Valentine Faure in France, Florian Bayer in Austria and Paul Tullis in the Netherlands.
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