The EU has received a sharp rebuke across the bloc in this year’s European Parliament elections.
Across the EU Eurosceptic populist parties have scored huge victories dealing the establishment a devastating blow.
In the UK Nigel Farage’s six-week-old Brexit Party decisively won the country’s European Parliament elections claiming 29 seats out of a possible 70 with the governing Conservative party and opposition Labour party seeing a large drop in support.
However, this pattern of growing support for nationalist populists was seen across the EU with the National Rally party topping the polls in France, the League Party of Italy’s Deputy PM Matteo Salvini being victorious in his country and the Fidez party of Hungary topping the polls there as well.
In Germany the anti-open borders ‘Alternative for Deutschland’ party came fourth but in Poland the ruling nationalist, Eurosceptic ‘Law and Justice’ party attained a clear victory which is seen as stamp of approval from the electorate for its right-wing, anti-Brussels policies.
Eurosceptic nationalist parties also did well in several other countries with the exception of Ireland who once again turned to the establishment parties reinvigorating the status quo and gave the Green Party, who oversaw the economic collapse and bank bailout a decade ago, a huge boost.
For his part Nigel Farage has said that should the UK not leave the EU by the end of October the Brexit Party’s success will be repeated, this time in a general election.
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